A  HISTORY  OF 
THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

BY 
WOODROW  WILSON,  PH.D.,  Lirr.D.,  LL.D. 

IN   FIVE  VOLUMES 
VOL.  II. 

Colonies  ano  IRation 


GEORGE     WASHINGTON 


A   HISTORY  OF 
THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 


BY 

WOODROW  WILSON,  PH.D.,  Lrrr.D.,  LL.D. 

PRESIDENT"  OP   THE   UNITED   STATES 


ILLUSTRATED    WITH    PORTRAITS,    MAPS 

PLANS,    FACSIMILES,    RARE    PRINTS 

CONTEMPORARY    VIEWS,    ETC. 

IN    FIVE    VOLUMES 
VOL.  II. 


E^pfc||j 


NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS     PUBLISHERS 


BOOKS  BY 
WOODROW   WILSON 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 
Profusely  illustrated.     5  volumes.     8vo 
Three-quarter  Calf 
Three-quarter  Levant 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON.     Illustrated.    8vo 
Popular  Edition 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS.  NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT.    1901      1902      BY   WOODROW   WILSON 

COPYRIGHT.    I»01.    1902.    BY   HARPER    ft    BROTHERS 

PRINTED    IN   THE    UNITED   STATES   OF   AMERICA 

iC-O 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  COMMON  UNDERTAKINGS i 

II.  THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 98 

III.  THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 172 

IV.  THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 223 

APPENDIX 331 


NOTES   ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON Frontispiece. 

PLAN  OF  CHARLESTON,  SOUTH  CAROLINA,  ABOUT  1732. — 
From  plate  12  of  Henry  Popple's  Map  of  the  British 
Empire  in  America.  London,  1733 3 

NEW  ORLEANS  IN  1719. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print  ...        5 
SAMUEL  DE  CHAMPLAIN. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print    ...        7 

AN  EARLY  VIEW  OF  QUEBEC. — Redrawn  from  a  view  published 

at  London  in  1760 12 

COUR  DU  Bois,  xvn.  CENTURY. — From  a  drawing  by  Frederic 

Remington 14 

AN  ENGLISH  FLEET  ABOUT  1732. — From  plate  n  of  Henry 

Popple's  Map  of  the  British  Empire  in  America     .     .          .16 

MOALE'S  SKETCH  OF  BALTIMORE,  MARYLAND,  IN  1752. — 
Drawn  from  the  original  in  the  Maryland  Historical 
Society 19 

CHARLESTON,  FROM  THE  HARBOR,   1742.— Redrawn  from  an 

old  print 22 

LORD  BELLOMONT. — From  an  old  engraving     .......      25 

WILLIAM  AND  MARY  COLLEGE  BEFORE  THE  FIRE,    1723. — 

Redrawn  from  an  old  print 27 

JOHN  CHURCHILL,  DUKE  OF  MARLBOROUGH. — From  an  en- 
graving by  R.  Cooper  in  the  Emmet  Collection,  New  York 
Public  Library  (Lenox  Building)  29 

PRINCE  EUGENE. — From  an  old  engraving 31 

vii 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

FRENCH  HUGUENOT  CHURCH,  NEW  YORK,  1704.— Redrawn 

from  an  old  print 32 

OLD  SWEDES  CHURCH,  WILMINGTON,  DELAWARE.— From  a 

drawing  by  Howard  Pyle 34 

NEW  YORK  SLAVE  MARKET  ABOUT  1730.— Redrawn  from  an 

old  print 36 

BROAD  STREET,  NEW  YORK,  IN  1740.— Redrawn  from  an  old 

print 37 

OLD  STATE  HOUSE  AT  ANNAPOLIS,  MARYLAND. — Redrawn 

from  an  old  lithograph  by  Weber 39 

NEW  YORK,  FROM  THE  HARBOR,  ABOUT  1725.— Redrawn  from 

an  old  print 41 

ALEXANDER  SPOTSWOOD.— Redrawn  from  the  frontispiece 
in  the  Official  Letters  of  Alexander  Spolswood,  published 
by  the  Virginia  Historical  Society 42 

BRENTON  CHURCH,  WHERE  GOVERNOR  SPOTSWOOD  WOR- 
SHIPPED.— From  Lossing's  Field-Book  of  the  Revolution  .  .  43 

GOVERNOR  SPOTSWOOD'S  EXPEDITION  TO  THE  BLUE  RIDGE. 

— From  a  painting  by  F.  Luis  Mora 45 

COLONEL  RHETT  AND  THE  PIRATE  STEDE  BONNET. — From 

a  painting  by  Howard  Pyle 46 

PORTRAIT  OF  THE  PIRATE  EDWARD  THATCH  (OR  TEACH). 
— From  Capt.  Charles  Johnson's  General  History  of  the  High- 
waymen [etc.].  London,  1736.  In  the  New  York  Public 
Library  (Lenox  Building) 48 

SIR  ROBERT  WALPOLE. — From  an  old  engraving     ....       50 

MAP  OF  THE  COAST  SETTLEMENTS,  1742.— From  an  old  English 

map 53 

POHICK  CHURCH,  VIRGINIA,  WHERE  WASHINGTON  WOR- 
SHIPPED.— From  a  sketch  by  Benson  J.  Lossing  in  1850  55 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  THE  PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  THE  NEGROES. 

— Title-page  of  the  original  edition  of  Daniel  Horsmanden's 
Journal  of  the  so-called  "  Negro  Plot  "  of  1741.     From  an 
original  in  the  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox  Building)       57 
viii 


NOTES  ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

OSWEGO  IN  1750. — Redrawn  and  extended  from  a  folded  view 
in  William  Smith's  History  of  the  Province  of  New  York. 
London.  1757 60 

JAMES  OGLETHORPE. — From  an  old  engraving 63 

OGLETHORPE'S   ORDER    FOR   SUPPLIES.  —  From   Winsor  s 

America 65 

SAVANNAH  IN  1734. — From  an  original  engraving  in  the  New 

York  Public  Library  (Lenox  Building) ...     0     ....       66 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON.— From  the  bust  by  Palmer  in  posses- 
sion of  the  Honorable  Nicholas  Fish,  of  New  York.  Facing  p.  66 

JOHN  WESLEY. — From  an  old  engraving 68 

OGLETHORPE'S  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  ST.   AUGUSTINE. — 

From  a  painting  by  F.  Luis  Mora 69 

GEORGE  WHITEFIELD. — From  an  old  engraving 70 

THE  ACTION  AT  CARTAGENA. — From  Green's  History  of  the 

English  People 72 

WILLIAM  PEPPERRELL.— Sir  William  Pepperrell.  The  original 
painting  is  in  the  Essex  Institute,  at  Salem.  Mass. ;  the 
artist's  name  is  not  known 74 

FACSIMILE  OF  THE  NEW  YORK  WEEKLY  JOURNAL.— First 
page  of  the  second  number  of  John  Peter  Zenger's  newspaper, 
from  an  original  in  the  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox 
Building) 78 

ROBERT  DINWIDDIE. — After  a  phototype  by  F.  Gutekunst  which 
forms  the  frontispiece  to  vol.  ii.  of  the  Dinwiddie  Papers, 
published  by  the  Virginia  Historical  Society 80 

MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE,  NEW  YORK,  1752-1799.— From 
Reminiscences  of  an  Old  New-Yorker.  Emmet :  New  York 
Public  Library  (Lenox  Building) 83 

THE  PLAINS  OF  ABRAHAM  ON  THE  MORNING  OF  THE 

BATTLE. — From  a  painting  by  Frederic  Remington  ...       86 

MAP  OF  BRADDOCK'S  DEFEAT.  —  Redrawn  from  plate  6  of 
Winthrop  Sargent's  History  of  Braddock's  Expedition,  pub- 
lished by  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania  ....  88 

WILLIAM  PITT. — From  an  old  engraving 91 

ix 


NOTES   ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

SIGNATURE  OF  JAMES  ABERCROMBIE 92 

THE  CAPITULATION  OF  LOUISBOURG. — From  a  painting  by 

Howard  Pyle 93 

JEFFREY  AMHERST. — From  an  old  engraving 94 

JAMES  WOLFE. — From  a  mezzotint  by  Richard  Houston  in  the 
Emmet  Collection,  No.  3217,  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox 
Building) 95 

WILLIAM  BYRD. — From  Wilson's  Washington 101 


PLAN  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK,  1767.— From  Janvier's  Old 

New  York,  p.  48 103 

EDMUND  BURKE. — From  an  engraving  after  the  painting  by 

Romney 106 

VIEW  OF  THE  BUILDINGS  BELONGING  TO  HARVARD  COL- 
LEGE, CAMBRIDGE.  NEW  ENGLAND,  1726. — Partial  repro- 
duction of  the  earliest  print  of  Harvard  College.  AVhat  is  be- 
lieved to  be  the  only  extant  copy  of  this  old  engraving  is 
owned  by  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 109 

NASSAU  HALL,  PRINCETON  COLLEGE,  1760. — Redrawn  from 

an  old  print Ill 

KING'S  COLLEGE     NEW  YORK,    1758.— Redrawn  from  an  old 

print 112 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.— From  the  portrait  by  Duplessis  in  the 

Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  Mass Facing  p.     112 

THE  BIRTHPLACE  OF  BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN,  MlLK  STREET. 

BOSTON. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print 113 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. — From  an  old  engraving 115 

A  PAGE  OF  "POOR  RICHARD'S"  ALMANAC. — From  an  original 
of  this  almanac  for  176 7,  in  the  New  York  Public  Library 
(Lenox  Building) 117 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  IN  A  COLONIAL  DRAWING-ROOM. — From 

a  painting  by  H.  C.  Christy 119 

MRS.  BENEDICT  ARNOLD  AND  CHILD. — From  the  portrait  by 
Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Penn- 
sylvania   121 

FRANKLIN'S    OLD    BOOK-SHOP,  NEXT   TO    CHRIST'S    CHURCH, 

PHILADELPHIA. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print 123 

X 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 
GEORGE  GRENVILLE. — From  an  old  print 125 

BOUNDARY  MONUMENT  ON  THE  ST.  CROIX. — From  a  litho- 
graph by  L.  Haghe  after  a  sketch  by  Joseph  Bouchette,  made 
in  July,  1817,  and  included  in  his  British  Dominions  in  North 
America.  London,  1832 127 

PONTIAC,   CHIEF  OF  THE  OTTAWAS. — Redrawn  from  an  old 

print .129 

HENRY  BOUQUET. — From  a  process-plate  in  New  York  Public 

Library  (Lenox  Building) 131 

BOUQUET'S  REDOUBT  AT  PITTSBURG. — Redrawn  from  an  old 

print 132 

PATRICK  HENRY. — From  an  old  engraving 133 

SIGNATURE  OF  ISAAC  BARRE .134 

FACSIMILE  OF  POSTER  PLACED  ON  THE  DOORS  OF  PUBLIC 

BUILDINGS. — From  Lamb's  History  of  New  York     ...     135 

JOHN  DICKINSON. — From  an  old  engraving 137 

THOMAS  HUTCHINSON. — From  the  painting  attributed  to  Cop- 
ley, in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 138 

THOMAS  HUTCHINSON'S  MANSION,  BOSTON.— Redrawn  from 

an  old  print 139 

TABLE  OF  STAMP  CHARGES  ON  PAPER. — From  an  original  of 
this  broadside,  in  the  Emmet  Collection,  No.  1802,  in  the 
New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox  Building) 141 

LORD    ROCKINGHAM. — From   an   engraving   after   a    painting 

by  Wilson 142 

.JAMES  OTIS. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print 144 

STAMPS  FORCED  ON  THE  COLONIES. — From  a  photograph 

of  an  old  document 145 

OLD  CAPITOL  AT  WlLLIAMSBURG,  VIRGINIA. — From  a  paint- 
ing by  Howard  Pyle 147 

GEORGE  WYTHE.— From  a  painting  by  Weir,  after  Trumbull, 

in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia 149 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  1772.— From  a  portrait  painted  in  1772, 
by  C.  W.  Peale,  now  owned  by  General  George  Washington 

Custis  Lee,  of  Lexington,  Virginia 155 

xi 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

LANDING   TROOPS  AT   BOSTON,   1768.— From   a   heliotype   in 

Winsor's  Boston,  after  the  engraving  by  Paul  Revere     .     .     157 

LIST  OF  NAMES  OF  THOSE  WHO  WOULD  NOT  CONFORM. — 
This  is  a  page  from  the  North  American  Almanack  for  1770, 
published  at  Boston  by  Edes  and  Gill 159 

HAND-BILL  OF  TRUE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY.  —  From  Winsor's 
America.  The  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  possesses 
a  copy  of  the  original  broadside 162 

THE  BOSTON  MASSACRE. — From  a  painting  by  F.  Luis  Mora     163 

AFTER  THE  MASSACRE.  SAMUEL  ADAMS  DEMANDING 
OF  GOVERNOR  HUTCHINSON  THE  INSTANT  WITHDRAWAL 
OF  BRITISH  TROOPS. — From  a  painting  by  Howard  Pyle  165 

INTERIOR    OF    COUNCIL   CHAMBER,   OLD    STATE    HOUSE, 

BOSTON. — From  a  photograph 166 

PROTEST  AGAINST  THE  LANDING  OF  TEA.— Facsimile  of  a 

Boston    broadside,  from    Winsor's    America.     An    original 

is  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 167 

ENTRY  JOHN  ADAMS'S  DIARY. — From  Winsor's  Boston    .    .    168 

CALL  FOR  MEETING  TO  PROTEST  AGAINST  THE  LANDING  OF 
TEA. — A  Philadelphia  poster,  from  Winsor's  America.  There 
is  an  original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania  .  .  168 

THE  BOSTON  TEA  PARTY. — From  a  painting  by  Howard  Pyle     169 

BOYCOTTING  POSTER. — From    the    original  hand  -  bill  in    the 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society 173 

CIRCULAR  OF  THE  BOSTON  COMMITTEE  OF  CORRESPOND- 
ENCE.— From  the  original  in  the  Boston  Public  Library  .  .  175 

GEORGE  III. — From  an  engraving  by  Benoit 177 

GEORGE  MASON. — From  a  painting  by  Herbert  Walsh,  in  In- 
dependence Hall,  Philadelphia 179 

SEAL  OF  DUNMORE. — Redrawn  from  an  impression  of  the  seal     181 
EARL  OF  DUNMORE. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print 182 

THE  ATTACK  ON  THE   GASPEE. — From  a  painting  by  Howard 

Pyle 184 

LORD  NORTH. — From  the  engraving  by  Mote,  after  Dance     .     .     186 
xii 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  HUTCHINSON'S  HISTORY. — From  an  original 

in  the  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox  Building)     .     .     .     188 

GENERAL  GAGE. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print 190 

STOVE  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  BURGESSES,  VIRGINIA. — 

From  a  photograph  of  the  original  in  the  State  Library  of 
Virginia 191 

JOHN  ADAMS. — From  the  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  in  Harvard 

University Fating  p.     192 

ROGER  SHERMAN. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print 195 

JOSEPH  GALLOWAY. — Redrawn  Irom  an  old  print 197 

JOHN    DICKINSON. — From  an   engraving  after  a   drawing   by 

Du  Simitier 198 

PE\TON  RANDOLPH. — From  an  engraving  after  a  painting  by 

C.  W.  Peale 200 

WASHINGTON  STOPPING  AT  AN  INN  ON  HIS  WAY  TO  CAM- 
BRIDGE.— From  a  painting  by  F.  Luis  Mora 203 

THE  LIBERTY  SONG. — From  The  Writings  of  John  Dickinson, 
edited  by  Paul  Leicester  Ford,  published  by  the  Historical 
Society  of  Pennsj'lvania 205 

SIGNATURE  OF  JOSEPH  HAWLEY 210 

THE  HOUSE  OF  COMMONS  AS  IT  APPEARED  IN  1741.— From 

a  drawing  by  Gavelot 214 

PAGE  FROM  THE  DIARY  OF  JOSIAH   QUINCY,  JR.— From 

Winsor's  America.  The  original  diary,  kept  while  he  was 
in  London  in  1774,  is  preserved  in  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society 216 

PROCLAMATION  OF  THE  KING  FOR  THE  SUPPRESSION  OF 

THE  REBELLION. — From  an  original  of  this  broadside  in 
the  Emmet  Collection,  No.  1496,  in  the  New  York  Public 
Library  (Lenox  Building) 218 

GAGE'S  ORDER  PERMITTING  INHABITANTS  TO  LEAVE 
BOSTON. — From  Winsor's  Boston.  The  handwriting  is 
that  of  James  Bowdoin 220 

NOTICE  TO  MILITLA. — From  an  original  in  the  Massachusetts 

Historical  Society     .     ,     .     .     „ 224 

AN    ACCOUNT    OF   THE    CONCORD    FIGHT.  —  From    Winsor's 
2011 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

America.     The  original  is  in  the  Arthur  Lee  Papers,  pre- 
served at  Harvard  College  Library 225 

SIGNATURE  OF  ETHAN  ALLEN 226 

RUINS  OF  FORT  TTCONDEROGA. — Redrawn  from  an  old  print    227 

WATCHING  THE  FIGHT  AT  BUNKER  HILL. — From  a  painting 

by  Howard  Pyle 228 

FROM  BEACON  HILL,  1775,  NO.  i.  (LOOKING  TOWARDS 
DORCHESTER  HEIGHTS.) — From  Winsor's  America  .  .  230 

FROM  BEACON  HILL,   1775,   NO.   2.    (LOOKING  TOWARDS 

ROXBURY.) — From   Winsor's   America 231 

ORDER  OF  COMMITTEE  OF  SAFETY. — From  Winsor's  America    232 

BOSTON  AND  BUNKER  HILL,  FROM  A  PRINT  PUBLISHED  IN 
1781. — Redrawn  from  a  plan  in^ln  Impartial  History  of  the 
War  in  America 234 

RICHARD  MONTGOMERY. — From  an  old  engraving     ....     238 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN  AS  A  POLITICIAN. — From  a  painting 

by  Stephen  Elmer 240 

R.  H.  LEE'S  RESOLUTION  FOR  INDEPENDENCE. — From  Mc- 

Master's  School  History  of  the  United  States 241 

STATE  HOUSE,  PHILADELPHIA,   1778.— From  a  photograph 

of  the  original  drawing 242 

SIGNATURE  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 243 

JEFFERSON'S  ORIGINAL  DRAFT  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF 
INDEPENDENCE. — This  facsimile  of  Jefferson's  original 
rough  draft,  with  interlineations  by  Adams  and  Franklin, 
is  from  an  artotype  by  Edward  Bierstadt,  made  from 
the  original  in  the  Department  of  State,  Washington, 
D.  C 244,  245,  246,  247 

REAR  VIEW  OF  INDEPENDENCE  HALL.— From  a  photograph  .    248 

THE  PRESIDENT'S  CHAIR  IN  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CON- 
VENTION.— From  a  photograph 249 

MAP  OF  SULLIVAN'S  ISLAND. — Redrawn  from  a  plan  in  John- 
son's Traditions  and  Reminiscences  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion in  the  South.  Charleston,  S.  C.,  1851 250 

xiv 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

WILLIAM  MOULTRIE. — From  an  old  engraving 251 

SIR  WILLIAM  HOWE. — From  an  old  engraving 253 

HOWE'S  PROCLAMATION  PREPARATORY  TO  LEAVING  BOS- 
TON.— From  the  original  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society 255 

EVACUATION  OF  BROOKLYN  HEIGHTS. — From  a  painting  by 

F.  Luis  Mora 257 

CIRCULAR  OF  PHILADELPHIA  COUNCIL  OF  SAFETY. — From 

the  original  in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania     .     .     259 

OPERATIONS  AROUND  TRENTON  AND  PRINCETON.  NUM- 
BERS 76  REPRESENT  THE  CAMPS  OF  GENERAL  CORN- 
WALLIS  AND  77  THAT  OF  GENERAL  KNYPHAUSEN  ON 
THE  230  OF  JUNE,  1777  — Redrawn  from  a  sketch  map  by 
a  Hessian  officer 261 

HESSIAN  BOOT.— From  a  photograph 263 

LETTER  CONCERNING  BRITISH  OUTRAGES. — From  the  orig- 
inal in  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania 265 

RECRUITING    POSTER.— From    Smith's    American    Historical 

and  Literary  Curiosities 267 

JOHN  BURGOYNE. — From  an  old  engraving 269 

ARTHUR   ST.   GLAIR. — From  an  engraving   after   the   portrait 

by  C.  W.  Peale 271 

SAMUEL  ADAMS. — From  the  portrait  by  Copley  in  the  Museum 

of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  Mass Facing  p.     272 

BENJAMIN  LINCOLN. — From  the  portrait  in  the  Massachusetts 

Historical  Society 273 

SIR  WILLIAM  JOHNSON. — From  a  mezzotint  by  Spooner  in  the 
Emmet  Collection,  No.  36,  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox 
Building) 274 

SIR  JOHN  JOHNSON.— From  an  engraving  by  Bartolozzi     .     .     275 

JOSEPH  BRANT. — From  an  engraving  after  the  original  paint- 
ing by  G.  Romney 276 

PETER   GANSEVOORT.  —  From   Lossing's   Field -Book  of  the 

Revolution 277 

VOL.     ii. — 2 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

FACSIMILE  OF  CLOSING  PARAGRAPHS  OF  BURGOYNE'S  SUR- 
RENDER.— From  the  original  in  the  New  York  Historical 
Society 279 

SCENE  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  BRANDYWINE. — From  an  old 
engraving  in  the  Emmet  Collection,  New  York  Public 
Library  (Lenox  Building) 281 

WASHINGTON'S  PROCLAMATION.— From  the  original  in  the  His- 
torical Society  of  Pennsjlvania 283 

BARON  DE  STEUBEN. — From  an  old  engraving 285 

FACSIMILE  OF  PLAY  BILL.— From  Smith's  American  Historical 

and  Literary  Curiosities 287 

CHARLES  LEE. — From  a  mezzotint  after  the  painting  by  Thom- 
linson,  in  Emmet  Collection,  No.  1902,  New  York  Public 
Library  (Lenox  Building) 289 

REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  INSTRUCTIONS  FROM  CONGRESS  TO 
PRIVATEERS. — From  Maclay's  History  of  American  Pri- 
vateers   291 

CONTINENTAL  LOTTERY  BOOK. — From  a  photograph     ....     292 

REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  FIRST  AND  LAST  PARTS  OF  PATRICK 
HENRY'S  LETTER  OF  INSTRUCTIONS  TO  GEORGE  ROGERS 
CLARK. — From  the  Conquest  of  the  Nortfnvest,  by  William 
E.  English 294 

GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK. — From  a  portrait  by  Jarvis  in  the 

Wisconsin  Historical  Society 295 

GEORGE   CLARK'S   FINAL   SUMMONS   TO  COLONEL  HAMILTON 

TO  SURRENDER. — From  Winsor's  America       297 

CHARLES  JAMES  Fox. — From  an  engraving  after  the  portrait 

by  Opie 299 

JOHN  SULLIVAN. — From  a  mezzotint  by  Will 301 

CASIMIR  PULASKI. — From  an  engraving  by  Hall,  in  Emmet 
Collection,  No.  3852,  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox 
Building) 302 

JOHN  PAUL  JONES. — From  a  painting  by  C.  W.  Peale,  in  In- 
dependence Hall,  Philadelphia 304 

THE    FIGHT    BETWEEN    BON    HOMME    RlCHARD    AND    SERAPIS. 

— From  a  painting  by  Howard  Pyle 3°5 

xvi 


NOTES   ON   ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

WASHINGTON  AND  ROCHAMBEAU  IN  THE  TRENCHES  AT  YORK- 
TOWN. — From  a  painting  by  Howard  Pyle 307 

HORATIO  GATES. — From  an  engraving  by  C.  Tiebout,  after  the 
painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  Emmet  Collection,  New  York 
Public  Library  (Lenox  Building)  309 

BENEDICT  ARNOLD'S  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE 310 

BENEDICT  ARNOLD. — From  a  mezzotint  in  the  Emmet  Col- 
lection, No.  1877,  New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox 
Building) 311 

JOHN  ANDRE. — From  an  engraving  in  the  New  York  Public 

Library  (Lenox  Building) 312 

MAJOR  ANDRE'S  WATCH. — From  a  photograph 313 

BENEDICT  ARNOLD'S  PASS  TO  MAJOR  ANDRE. — From  Los- 
sing's  Field-Book  of  the  Revolution 314 

MAJOR  ANDRE'S  POCKET-BOOK. — From  a  photograph  .  .  .  315 
VIRGINIA  COLONIAL  CURRENCY. — From  a  photograph  ...  316 
LORD  CORNWALLIS. — From  an  old  print 317 

WILLIAM  WASHINGTON. — From  an  engraving  after  a  portrait 

by  C.  W.  Peale 318 

BANASIRE  TARLETON. — From  a  mezzotint  in  the  Emmet  Col- 
lection, New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox  Building)  .  .  319 

FRANCIS  MARION. — From  an  engraving  in  the  Emmet  Collec- 
tion, New  York  Public  Library  (Lenox  Building)  .  .  .  320 

DANIEL  MORGAN. — From  a  miniature  in  Yale  College  Library, 

New  Haven 321 

COUNT  ROCHAMBEAU. — From  an  old  engraving 322 

NATHANAEL  GREENE. — From  the  original  portrait  in  possession 

of  Mrs.  William  Benton  Greene,  Princeton,  N.  J.     .     .     .     323 

FACSIMILE  OF  THE  LAST  ARTICLE  OF  CAPITULATION  AT  YORK- 
TOWN. — From  a  facsimile  in  Smith's  American  Historical 
and  Literary  Curiosities 324 

PAROLE  OF  CORNWALLIS. — From  the  original  in  the  Library 

of  the  University  of  Virginia 325 

ORDER    PERMITTING    THE    ILLUMINATION    OF    PHILADELPHIA. 
xvii 


NOTES   ON    ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

— From  Smith's  American  Historical  and  Literary  Curiosi- 
ties.    Second  series.     New  York 326 

NELSON   HOUSE,    CORNWALLIS'S   HEADQUARTERS,    YORK- 
TOWN. — From  a  sketch  by  Benson  J.  Lossing  in  1850     .     .     327 

EVOLUTION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  FLAG. — Compiled  from  Treble's 

History  of  the  Flag  of  the  United  States.     Boston,  1880     .     328 

LIST  OF  MAPS 

ENGLISH  COLONIES,  1700 Facing  p.     So 

NORTH  AMERICA,  1750.    SHOWING  CLAIMS  ARISING  OUT  OF 

EXPLORATION Facing  p.     176 

ENGLISH  COLONIES,  1763-1775 "          320 


The  Appendix  in  this  volume  is  taken  by  permission  from 
Mr.  Howard  W.  Preston's  Documents  Illustrative  of  Ameri- 
can History. 


A   HISTORY 
OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 


A   HISTORY 
OF  THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

CHAPTER  I 

COMMON  UNDERTAKINGS 

THERE  had  been  some  noteworthy  passages  in  the 
reports  which  Colonel  Francis  Nicholson  sent  to  the 
government  at  home  when  he  was  first  governor  of 
Virginia  (1690) ;  for  he  studied  his  duties  in  those  days 
with  wide-open  eyes,  and  had  sometimes  written  of 
what  he  saw  with  a  very  statesmanlike  breadth  and 
insight.  It  was  very  noteworthy,  among  other  things, 
that  he  had  urged  a  defensive  confederation  of  the 
colonies  against  the  French  and  Indians,  under  the 
leadership  of  Virginia,  the  most  loyal  of  the  colonies. 
He  had  made  it  his  business  to  find  out  what  means  of 
defence  and  what  effective  military  force  there  were 
in  the  other  colonies,  particularly  in  those  at  the  north, 
conferring  with  their  authorities  with  regard  to  these 
matters  in  person  when  he  could  not  get  the  information 
he  wished  by  deputy.  The  King  and  his  ministers  in 
England  saw  very  clearly,  when  they  read  his  careful 
despatches,  that  they  could  not  wisely  act  upon  such 
suggestions  yet;  but  they  knew  that  what  Colonel 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Nicholson  thus  openly  and  definitely  advised  was  what 
must  occur  to  the  mind  of  every  thoughtful  and  obser- 
vant man  who  was  given  a  post  of  authority  and  guid- 
ance in  the  colonies,  whether  he  thought  it  wise  to 
advise  action  in  the  matter  or  not.  It  was  evident, 
indeed,  even  to  some  who  were  not  deemed  thoughtful 
at  all.  Even  the  heedless,  negligent  Lord  Culpeper, 
little  as  he  really  cared  for  the  government  he  had  been 
set  to  conduct,  had  suggested  eight  years  ago  that  all 
questions  of  war  and  peace  in  the  colonies  should  be 
submitted  for  final  decision  to  the  governor  and  coun- 
cil of  Virginia,  where  it  might  be  expected  that  the 
King's  interests  would  be  loyally  looked  after  and  safe- 
guarded. 

No  doubt  the  colonies  would  have  objected  to  and 
resisted  such  an  arrangement  with  a  very  hot  resent- 
ment, and  no  one  in  authority  in  London  dreamed  for 
a  moment  of  taking  either  Lord  Culpeper's  or  Colonel 
Nicholson's  advice  in  the  matter;  but  it  was  none  the 
less  obvious  that  the  King  and  his  officers  must  con- 
trive some  way,  if  they  could,  by  which  they  might  use 
the  colonies  as  a  single  power  against  the  French  in 
America,  if  England  was  indeed  to  make  and  keep  an 
empire  there.  If  King  James,  who  leaned  upon  France 
as  an  ally  and  prayed  for  the  dominion  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  had  seen  this,  it  was  not  likely  that  William 
of  Orange,  who  was  the  arch-enemy  of  France  and  the 
champion  of  Protestantism  against  Rome,  would  over- 
look it.  He  was  no  sooner  on  the  throne  than  England 
was  plunged  into  a  long  eight  years'  war  with  the  French. 
And  so  it  happened  that  the  colonies  seemed  to  reap 
little  advantage  from  the  "glorious  revolution"  which 
had  put  out  a  tyrant  and  brought  in  a  constitutional 
2 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

King.  William  of  Orange,  it  present^  appeared,  meant 
to  unite  groups  of  colonies  under  the  authority  of  a 
single  royal  governor,  particularly  at  the  north,  where 
the  French  power  lay,  as  James  before  him  had  done; 
giving  to  the  governors  of  the  principal  colonies  the 
right  to  command  the  military  forces  of  the  colonies 


PLAN   OF   CHARLESTON,   SOUTH   CAROLINA,    1732 

about  them  even  if  he  gave  them  no  other  large  gift  of 
power.  He  did  more  than  James  had  done.  Being  a 
statesman  and  knowing  the  value  of  systematic  admin- 
istration, he  did  systematically  what  James  had  done 
loosely  and  without  consistent  plan.  The  Board  of 
Trade  and  Plantations,  which  he  organized  to  oversee 
and  direct  the  government  of  the  colonies,  did  more  to 
keep  their  affairs  under  the  e}re  and  hand  of  the  King 
3 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

than  any  group  of  James's  ministers  had  been  able  to 
do.  The  great  Dutch  King  was  determined  to  wield 
England  and  her  possessions  as  a  single  imperial  power 
in  the  game  of  politics  he  was  playing  in  Europe. 

The  French  power,  which  he  chiefly  feared,  had  really 
grown  very  menacing  in  America;  was  growing  more 
so  every  year;  and  must  very  soon  indeed  be  faced  and 
overcome,  if  the  English  were  not  to  be  shut  in  to  a 
narrow  seaboard,  or  ousted  altogether.  It  was  not  a 
question  of  numbers.  It  was  a  question  of  territorial  ag- 
grandizement, rather,  and  strategic  advantage.  Prob- 
ably there  were  not  more  than  twelve  thousand  French- 
men, all  told,  in  America  when  William  became  King 
(1689);  whereas  his  own  subjects  swarmed  there  full 
two  hundred  thousand  strong,  and  were  multiplying 
by  the  tens  of  thousands  from  decade  to  decade.  But 
the  French  were  building  military  posts  at  every  strategic 
point  as  they  went,  while  the  English  were  building 
nothing  but  rural  homes  and  open  villages.  With 
the  French  it  did  not  seem  a  matter  of  settlement;  it 
seemed  a  matter  of  conquest,  rather,  and  of  military 
occupation.  They  were  guarding  trade  routes  and 
making  sure  of  points  of  advantage.  The  English 
way  was  the  more  wholesome  and  the  more  vital.  A 
hardy,  self-dependent,  crowding  people  like  the  English 
in  Massachusetts  and  Virginia,  and  the  Dutch  in  New 
York,  took  root  wherever  they  went,  spread  into  real 
communities,  and  were  not  likely  to  be  got  rid  of  when 
once  their  number  had  run  into  the  thousands.  Their 
independence,  too,  and  their  capable  way  of  managing 
their  own  affairs  without  asking  or  wanting  or  getting 
any  assistance  from  government,  made  them  as  hard 
to  handle  as  if  they  had  been  themselves  an  established 
4 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

continental  power.  But  the  French  had  an  advantage, 
nevertheless,  which  was  not  to  be  despised.  They 
moved  as  they  were  ordered  to  move  by  an  active  and 
watchful  government  which  was  in  the  thick  of  critical 
happenings  where  policies  were  made,  and  which  meant 
to  cramp  the  English,  if  it  could  not  actually  get  rid 
of  them.  They  extended  and  organized  the  militar}7 
power  of  France  as  they  went;  and  they  were  steadily 
girdling  the  English  about  with  a  chain  of  posts  and 


NEW    ORLEANS    IN    1719 

settlements  which  bade  fair  to  keep  all  the  northern 
and  western  regions  of  the  great  continent  for  the  King 
of  France,  from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  round 
about,  two  thousand  miles,  to  the  outlets  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi at  the  Gulf. 

Their  movement  along  the  great  rivers  and  the  lakes 
had  been  very  slow  at  first;  but  it  had  quickened  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  was  now  rapid  enough 
to  fix  the  attention  of  any  man  who  could  hear  news 
and  had  his  eyes  abroad  upon  what  was  happening 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

about  him.  Jacques  Carrier  had  explored  the  noble 
river  St.  Lawrence  for  his  royal  master  of  France  a 
long  century  and  a  half  ago,  in  the  far  year  1535,  fifty 
years  before  the  English  so  much  as  attempted  a  settle- 
ment. But  it  was  not  until  1608,  the  year  after  James- 
town was  begun,  that  Samuel  de  Champlain  established 
the  first  permanent  French  settlement,  at  Quebec,  and 
there  were  still  but  two  hundred  lonety  settlers  there 
when  nearly  thirty  years  more  had  gone  by  (1636). 
It  was  the  quick  growth  and  systematic  explorations 
of  the  latter  part  of  the  century  that  made  the  English 
uneasy.  The  twelve  thousand  Frenchmen  who  were 
busy  at  the  work  of  occupation  when  William  of  Orange 
became  King  had  not  confined  themselves  to  the  settle- 
ments long  ago  made  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  at  Mon- 
treal, Quebec,  and  Tadousac,  where  the  great  river  of 
the  north  broadened  to  the  sea.  They  had  carried  their 
boats  across  from  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ottawa  to 
the  open  reaches  of  Lake  Huron ;  had  penetrated  thence 
to  Lake  Michigan,  and  even  to  the  farthest  shores  of 
Lake  Superior,  establishing  forts  and  trading  posts 
as  they  advanced.  They  had  crossed  from  Green  Bay 
in  Lake  Michigan  to  the  waters  of  the  Wisconsin  River, 
and  had  passed  by  that  easy  way  into  the  Mississippi 
itself.  That  stout-hearted  pioneer  Pere  Marquette  had 
descended  the  Father  of  Waters  past  the  Ohio  to  the 
outlet  of  the  Arkansas  (1673);  and  Robert  La  Salle 
had  followed  him  and  gone  all  the  long  way  to  the 
spreading  mouths  of  the  vast  river  and  the  gates  of 
the  Gulf  (1682),  not  by  way  of  the  Wisconsin,  but  by 
crossing  from  the  southern  end  of  Lake  Michigan  to 
the  stream  of  the  Illinois,  and  passing  by  that  way  to 
the  Mississippi. 

6 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

And  so  the  lakes  and  the  western  rivers  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi itself  saw  the  French;  and  French  posts  sprang 
up  upon  their  shores  to  mark  the  sovereignty  of  the 


SAMUEL   DE   CHAMPLAIN 

King  of  France.  Frenchmen  easily  enough  learned 
the  ways  of  the  wilderness  and  became  the  familiars  of 
the  Indians  in  their  camps  and  wigwams;  and  they 
showed  themselves  of  every  kind, — some  rough  and 

7 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

lawless  rovers,  only  too  glad  to  throw  off  the  restraints 
of  the  orderly  life  to  which  they  had  been  bred  and  live 
as  they  pleased  in  the  deep,  secluded  forests,  trading 
without  license,  seeking  adventure,  finding  a  way  for 
the  civilization  which  was  to  follow  them,  but  them- 
selves anxious  to  escape  it;  others  regular  traders,  who 
kept  their  hold  upon  the  settlements  behind  them  and 
submitted  when  they  were  obliged  to  official  exactions 
at  Montreal ;  some  intrepid  priests,  who  preached  salva- 
tion and  the  dominion  of  France  among  the  dusky 
tribes,  and  lived  or  died  with  a  like  fortitude  and  devotion, 
never  willingly  quitting  their  sacred  task  or  letting  go 
their  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  the  savage  men  the}^  had 
come  to  enlighten  and  subdue;  some  hardy  captains 
with  little  companies  of  drilled  men-at-arms  from  the 
fields  of  France  :---at  the  front  indomitable  explorers,  far 
in  the  rear  timid  farmers  clearing  spaces  in  the  silent 
woodland  for  their  scanty  crops,  and  little  towns  slowly 
growing  within  their  walls  where  the  river  broadened 
to  the  sea. 

This  stealthy  power  which  crept  so  steadily  south- 
ward and  westward  at  the  back  of  the  English  settle- 
ments upon  the  coast  was  held  at  arm's-length  through- 
out that  quiet  age  of  beginnings,  not  by  the  English, 
but  by  a  power  within  the  forests,  the  power  of  the  great 
confederated  Iroquois  tribes,  who  made  good  their 
mastery  between  the  Hudson  and  the  lakes :  the  Senecas, 
Cayugas,  Onondagas,  Oneidas,  and  Mohawks.  They 
were  stronger,  fiercer,  more  constant  and  indomitable, 
more  capable  every  way,  than  the  tribes  amidst  whom 
the  French  moved;  and  Champlain  had  unwittingly 
made  them  the  enemies  of  the  French  forever.  Long, 
long  ago,  in  the  year  1609,  which  white  men  had  for- 
8 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

gotten,  he  had  done  what  the  Iroquois  never  forgot  or 
forgave.  He  had  come  with  their  sworn  foes,  the  Algon- 
quins,  to  the  shores  of  that  lake  by  the  sources  of  the 
Hudson  which  the  palefaces  ever  afterwards  called  by 
his  name,  and  had  there  used  the  dread  fire-arms  of 
the  white  men,  of  which  they  had  never  heard  before, 
to  work  the  utter  ruin  of  the  Mohawks  in  battle.  They 
were  always  and  everywhere  ready  after  that  fatal  day 
to  be  am;-  man's  ally,  whether  Dutch  or  English,  against 
the  hated  French;  and  the  French  found  it  necessary 
to  keep  at  the  back  of  the  broad  forests  which  stretched 
from  the  eastern  Lakes  to  the  Hudson  and  the  Delaware, 
the  wide  empire  of  these  dusky  foes,  astute,  implacable. 
They  skirted  the  domains  of  the  Iroquois  when  they 
were  prudent,  and  passed  inland  by  the  lakes  and  the 
valle3^  of  the  Mississippi. 

But,  though  they  kept  their  distance,  they  advanced 
their  power.  The  colonists  in  New  England  had  been 
uneasy  because  of  their  unwelcome  neighborhood  from 
the  first.  Once  and  again  there  had  been  actual  collisions 
and  a  petty  warfare.  But  until  William  of  Orange 
made  England  a  party  to  the  great  war  of  the  Protestant 
powers  against  Louis  XIV.  few  men  had  seen  what  the 
struggle  between  French  and  English  held  in  store  for 
America.  The  English  colonies  had  grown  back  not  a 
little  way  from  the  sea,  steadily  pushed  farther  and  far- 
ther into  the  thick-set  forests  which  lay  upon  the  broad 
valleys  and  rising  slopes  of  the  interior  by  mere  increase 
of  people  and  drift  of  enterprise.  Before  the  seven- 
teenth century  was  out  adventurous  English  traders 
had  crossed  the  Alleghenies,  had  launched  their  canoes 
upon  the  waters  of  the  Ohio,  and  were  fixing  their  huts 
here  and  there  within  the  vast  wilderness  as  men  do 
9 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

who  mean  to  stay.  Colonel  Dongan,  the  Duke's  governor 
in  New  York  (1683),  like  many  another  officer  whose 
duties  made  him  alert  to  watch  the  humors  and  keep 
the  friendship  of  the  Iroquois,  the  masters  of  the  northern 
border,  had  been  quick  to  see  how  "  inconvenient  to  the 
English"  it  was  to  have  French  settlements  "running 
all  along  from  our  lakes  by  the  back  of  Virginia  and 
Carolina  to  the  Bay  of  Mexico. "  There  was  keen  rivalry 
in  trade,  and  had  been  these  many  years,  between  the 
men  of  the  English  and  Dutch  colonies  and  the  men  of 
the  French  for  the  profitable  trade  in  furs  which  had  its 
heart  at  the  north ;  and  it  was  already  possible  for  those 
who  knew  the  forest  commerce  to  reason  right  shrewdly 
of  the  future,  knowing,  as  they  did,  that  the  English 
gave  better  goods  and  dealt  more  fairly  for  the  furs 
than  the  French,  and  that  many  of  the  very  French- 
men who  ranged  the  forests  in  search  of  gain  them- 
selves preferred  to  send  what  they  had  to  Albany  for 
sale.  But,  except  for  a  few  lonely  villages  in  far-away 
Maine,  there  was  nowhere  any  close  contact  between 
French  and  English  in  America.  Few,  except  traders 
and  thoughtful  governors  and  border  villagers,  who 
feared  the  tribes  whom  the  French  incited  to  attack  and 
massacre,  knew  what  France  did  or  was  planning. 

King  William's  War  (1689-1697),  with  its  eight  years 
of  conscious  peril,  set  new  thoughts  astir.  It  made 
America  part  of  the  stage  upon  which  the  great  European 
conflict  between  French  and  English  was  to  be  fought 
out ;  and  immediately  a  sort  of  continental  air  began  to 
blow  through  colonial  affairs.  Colonial  interests  began 
to  seem  less  local,  more  like  interests  held  in  common, 
and  the  colonies  began  to  think  of  themselves  as  part 
of  an  empire.  They  had  no  great  part  in  the  war,  it 
10 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

is  true.  Hale  Sir  William  Phips,  that  frank  seaman 
adventurer,  led  an  expedition  against  Acadia  in  1690, 
took  Port  Royal,  and  stripped  the  province  of  all  that 
could  be  brought  away;  but  that  had  hardly  had  the 
dignity  of  formal  war.  He  had  chiefly  relished  the 
private  gain  got  out  of  it  as  a  pleasant  reminder  of  that 
day  of  fortune  when  he  had  found  the  Spanish  treasure- 
ship  sunk  upon  a  reef  in  far  Hispaniola.  His  second 
expedition,  made  the  same  year  against  Quebec,  ho 
doubt  smacked  more  of  the  regular  business,  for  he 
undertook  it  as  an  accredited  officer  of  the  crown;  but 
when  it  failed  it  is  likely  he  thought  more  of  the  pri- 
vate moneys  subscribed  and  lost  upon  it  than  of  the 
defeat  of  the  royal  arms.  There  was  here  the  irrita- 
tion, rather  than  the  zest,  of  great  matters,  and  the 
colonial  leaders  were  not  becoming  European  states- 
men of  a  sudden.  Their  local  affairs  were  still  of  more 
concern  to  them  than  the  policies  of  European  courts. 
Nevertheless  the  war  made  a  beginning  of  common  un- 
dertakings. The  colonies  were  a  little  drawn  together, 
a  little  put  in  mind  of  matters  larger  than  their  own. 

New  York  felt  herself  no  less  concerned  than  Massachu- 
setts and  Maine  in  the  contest  with  the  French,  with  its 
inevitable  accompaniment  of  trouble  with  the  Indians; 
and  Jacob  Leisler,  plebeian  and  self-constituted  governor 
though  he  was,  had  made  bold  to  take  the  initiative 
in  forming  plans  for  the  war.  Count  Louis  de  Fron- 
tenac  had  been  made  governor  of  New  France  the  very 
year  William  established  himself  as  king  in  England 
(1689),  and  had  come  instructed,  as  every  Englishman 
in  America  presently  heard  rumor  say,  to  attack  the 
English  settlements  at  their  very  heart, — at  New  York 
itself.  It  was  this  rumor  that  had  made  Leisler  hasten 

VOL.   II. — 3  II 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

to  seize  the  government  in  King  William's  name,  seeing 
King  James's  governor  hesitate,  and  hearing  it  cried 
in  the  streets  that  the  French  were  in  the  very  Bay. 
He  had  thought  it  not  impossible  that  James's  officers 
might  prove  traitors  and  friends  of  King  Louis  in  that 
last  moment  of  their  power.  And  then,  when  the  govern- 
ment was  in  his  hands,  this  people's  governor  called  a 


AN   EARLY   VIEW   OF   QUEBEC 

conference  of  the  colonies  to  determine  what  should  be 
done  for  the  common  defence.  Massachusetts,  Plym- 
outh, and  Connecticut  responded,  and  sent  agents  to 
the  conference  (1690),  the  first  of  its  kind  since  America 
was  settled.  It  was  agreed  to  attempt  the  conquest  of 
New  France.  Sir  William  Phips  should  lead  an  ex- 
pedition by  sea  against  Quebec;  and  another  force 
should  go  by  land  out  of  Connecticut  and  New  York 
12 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

to  attack  Montreal,  the  only  other  stronghold,  taking 
their  Iroquois  allies  with  them.  But  the  land  expedition 
was  every  way  unfortunate,  and  got  no  farther  than 
Lake  Champlain.  Frontenac  was  able  to  devote  all 
his  strength  to  the  defence  of  Quebec ;  and  Sir  William 
Phips  came  back  whipped  and  empty-handed.  The 
first  effort  at  a  common  undertaking  had  utterly  mis- 
carried. 

But  that  was  not  the  end  of  the  war.  Its  fires  burned 
hot  in  the  forests.  Frontenac  prosecuted  the  ugly  bus- 
iness to  the  end  as  he  had  begun  it.  He  had  begun, 
not  by  sending  a  fleet  to  New  York,  for  he  had  none  to 
send,  but  by  sending  his  Indian  allies  to  a  sudden  at- 
tack and  savage  massacre  at  Schenectady,  where  sixty 
persons,  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  saw  swift 
and  fearful  death  (1689);  and  year  by  year  the  same 
hideous  acts  of  barbarous  war  were  repeated, — not  al- 
ways upon  the  far-away  border,  but  sometimes  at  the 
very  heart  of  the  teeming  colonj^, — once  (1697)  at  Haver- 
hill,  not  thirty-five  miles  out  of  Boston  itself.  Such  a 
war  was  not  likely  to  be  forgot  in  the  northern  colonies, 
at  any  rate,  and  in  New  York.  Its  memories  were  bitten 
into  the  hearts  of  the  colonists  there  as  with  the  searings 
of  a  hot  iron;  and  they  knew  that  the  French  must  be 
overcome  before  there  could  be  any  lasting  peace,  or 
room  enough  made  for  English  growth  in  the  forests. 

They  would  rather  have  turned  their  thoughts  to 
other  things.  There  were  home  matters  of  deep  moment 
which  they  were  uneasy  to  settle.  But  these  larger 
matters,  of  England's  place  and  power  in  the  world, 
dominated  them  whether  they  would  or  no.  King 
William's  War  was  but  the  forerunner  of  many  more,  of 
the  same  meaning  and  portent.  Wars  vexed  and  dis- 
13 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 


ciplined  them  for  half 
a  century,  and  their 
separate  interests  had 
often  to  stand  neglect- 
ed for  years  together 
in  order  that  their 
common  interests  and 
the  interests  of  Eng- 
lish empire  in  Amer- 
ica might  be  guarded. 
And  yet  those  who 
were  thoughtful  did 
not  lose  sight  of  the 
great,  though  subtle, 
gain  which  came  with 
the  vexing  losses  of 
war,  to  offset  them. 
They  had  not  failed 
to  notice  and  to  take 
to  heart  what  had 
happened  in  England 
when  William  and 
Mary  were  brought  to 
the  throne.  They  were 
none  the  less  English- 
men for  being  out  of 
England,  and  what 
Parliament  did  for 
English  liberty  deeply 
concerned  them.  Par- 
liament, as  all  the  world  knew,  had  done  a  great  deal  dur- 
ing those  critical  days  in  which  it  had  consummated  the 
"  glorious  revolution  "  by  which  the  Stuarts  were  once 
14. 


COURIER    DU    BOIS,    XVII.    CENTURY 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

for  all  put  from  the  seat  of  sovereignty.  It  had  reasserted 
the  ancient  rights  named  in  Magna  Charta ;  it  had  done 
away  with  the  King's  arrogated  right  to  tax;  it  had 
destroyed  his  alleged  right  to  set  laws  aside,  or  alter 
them  in  any  way;  it  had  reduced  him  from  being  master 
and  had  made  him  a  constitutional  king,  subject  to  his 
people's  will,  spoken  through  their  legal  representatives 
in  Parliament.  The  new  King,  too,  had  shown  himself 
willing  to  extend  these  principles  to  America.  In  the 
charters  which  he  granted  or  renewed,  and  in  the  in- 
structions which  he  gave  to  the  governors  whom  he 
commissioned,  he  did  not  begrudge  an  explicit  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  right  of  the  colonies  to  control 
their  own  taxation  and  the  expenditures  of  their  own 
colonial  establishments. 

War  embarrassed  trade.  It  made  hostile  territo^  of 
the  French  West  Indies,  whence  New  England  skippers 
fetched  molasses  for  the  makers  of  rum  at  home;  and 
that  was  no  small  matter,  for  the  shrewd  New  Eng- 
land traders  were  already  beginning  to  learn  how  much 
rum  would  pay  for,  whether  among  the  Indians  of  the 
forest  country,  among  the  savages  of  the  African  slave 
coast,  or  among  their  own  neighbors  at  home,  where 
all  deemed  strong  drink  a  capital  solace  and  defence 
against  the  asperities  of  a  hard  life.  But  it  needed  only 
a  little  circumspection,  it  turned  out,  to  keep  even  that 
trade,  notwithstanding  the  thing  was  a  trifle  difficult 
and  hazardous.  There  was  little  cause  for  men  who 
kept  their  wits  about  them  to  fear  the  law  on  the  long, 
unfrequented  coasts  of  the  New  World;  and  there  was 
trade  with  the  French  without  scruple  whether  war 
held  or  ceased.  Buccaneers  and  pirates  abounded  in 
the  southern  seas,  and  legitimate  traders  knew  as 
15 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

well  as  they  did  how  confiscation  and  capture  were  to 
be  avoided. 

The  main  lines  of  trade  ran,  after  all,  straight  to 
the  mother  country,  and  were  protected  when  there 
was  need  by  English  fleets.  Both  the  laws  of  Parlia- 
ment and  their  own  interest  bound  the  trade  of  the 
colonies  to  England.  The  Navigation  Act  of  1660, 
in  force  now  these  forty  years,  forbade  all  trade  with 


AN   ENGLISH   FLEET   IN    1732 

the  colonies  except  in  English  bottoms;  forbade  also 
the  shipment  of  their  tobacco  and  wool  anywhither 
but  to  England  itself;  and  an  act  of  1663  forbade  the 
importation  of  anything  at  all  except  out  of  England, 
which,  it  was  then  once  for  all  determined,  must  be 
the  entrepot  and  place  of  staple  for  all  foreign  trade. 
It  was  determined  that,  if  there  were  to  be  middlemen's 
profits,  the  middlemen  should  be  English,  and  that 
the  carrying  trade  of  England  and  her  colonies  should 
be  English,  not  Dutch.  It  was  the  Dutch  against  whom 
the  acts  were  aimed.  Dutch  ships  cost  less  in  the 
building  than  ships  built  in  England;  the  Dutch  mer- 
16 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

chantmen  could  afford  to  charge  lower  rates  of  freight 
than  English  skippers;  and  the  statesmen  of  King 
Charles,  deeming  Holland  their  chief  competitor  upon 
the  seas  and  in  the  markets  of  the  world,  meant  to  cut 
the  rivalry  short  by  statute,  so  far  as  the  English  realm 
was  concerned. 

Fortunately  the  interests  of  the  colonists  themselves 
wore  easily  enough  the  harness  of  the  acts.  For  a 
while  it  went  very  hard  in  Virginia,  it  is  true,  to  pay 
English  freight  rates  on  every  shipment  of  tobacco, 
the  colony's  chief  staple,  and  to  sell  only  through  Eng- 
lish middlemen,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  accommodating 
Dutch  and  all  competition.  Trade  touched  nothing 
greater  than  the  tobacco  crop.  Virginia  supplied  in 
that  alone  a  full  half  of  all  the  exports  of  the  colonies, 
f  ler  planters  sharply  resented  "  that  severe  act  of  Par- 
liament which  excludes  us  from  having  any  commerce 
with  any  nation  in  Europe  but  our  own  ";  for  it  seemed 
to  put  upon  them  a  special  burden.  "  We  cannot  add  to 
our  plantation  any  commodity  that  grows  out  of  it,  as 
olive  trees,  cotton,  or  vines,"  complained  Sir  William 
Berkeley  very  bluntly  to  the  government  in  1671.  "Be- 
sides this,  we  cannot  procure  any  skilful  men  for  one 
now  hopeful  commodity,  silk:  for  it  is  not  lawful  for 
us  to  carry  a  pipe  stave  or  a  barrel  of  corn  to  any  place 
in  Europe  out  of  the  King's  dominions.  If  this  were 
for  his  Majesty's  service  or  the  good  of  his  subjects, 
we  should  not  repine,  whatever  our  sufferings  are  for 
it;  but  on  my  soul,  it  is  the  contrary  for  both."  But 
the  thing  was  eased  for  them  at  last  when  the}7  began 
to  see  how  their  interest  really  lay.  They  had  almost 
a  monopoly  of  the  English  market,  for  Spanish  tobacco 
was  kept  out  by  high  duties,  the  planting  of  tobacco  in 


A  HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

England,  begun  on  no  mean  scale  in  the  west  midland 
counties  in  the  days  of  the  Protectorate,  was  prohibited 
by  law,  and  a  rebate  of  duties  on  all  tobacco  re-exported 
to  the  continent  quickened  the  trade  with  the  northern 
countries  of  Europe,  the  chief  market  in  any  case  for 
the  Virginian  leaf.  Grumbling  and  evasion  disap- 
peared in  good  time,  and  Virginia  accommodated  her- 
self with  reasonable  grace  to  what  was,  after  all,  no 
ruinous  or  unprofitable  arrangement. 

New  England,  where  traders  most  abounded,  found 
little  in  the  acts  that  she  need  complain  of  or  seek  to 
escape  from.  No  New  England  commodity  had  its 
route  and  market  prescribed  as  Virginian  tobacco  had; 
New  England  ships  were  "English"  bottoms  no  less 
than  ships  built  in  England  itself;  they  could  be  built 
as  cheaply  as  the  Dutch,  and  the  long  coast  of  the  con- 
tinent was  clear  for  their  skippers.  If  laws  grew  in- 
convenient, there  were  unwatched  harbors  enough  in 
which  to  lade  and  unlade  without  clearance  papers. 
English  capital  quickened  trade  as  well  as  supplied 
shipping  for  the  ocean  carriage,  and  the  King's  navy 
made  coast  and  sea  safe.  If  it  was  irritating  to  be  tied 
to  the  leading-strings  of  statutes,  it  was  at  least  an 
agreeable  thing  that  they  should  usually  pull  in  the 
direction  merchants  would  in  any  case  have  taken. 
Though  all  products  of  foreign  countries  had  to  be 
brought  through  the  English  markets  and  the  hands 
of  English  middlemen,  the  duties  charged  upon  them 
upon  their  entrance  into  England  were  remitted  upon 
their  reshipment  to  America,  and  they  were  often  to  be 
had  more  cheaply  in  the  colonies  than  in  London. 

In  1699,  when  the  war  was  over,  Parliament  laid  a 
new  restriction  upon  the  colonies,  forbidding  them  to 
18 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

manufacture  their  own  wool  for  export,  even  for  export 
from  colony  to  colony.  Good  housewives  were  not 
to  be  prevented  from  weaving  their  own  wool  into  cloth 
for  the  use  of  their  own  households;  village  weavers 
were  not  to  be  forbidden  their  neighborhood  trade; 
but  the  wroollen  weavers  of  England  supplied  more  than 
half  of  all  the  exports  to  the  colonies,  and  had  no  mind 
to  let  woollen  manufacture  spring  up  in  America  if 
Parliament  could  be  induced  to  prohibit  it  It  made 


MOALE'S   SKETCH    OF   BALTIMORE,   MARYLAND,  IN    1752 

no  great  practical  difference  to  the  colonies,  though 
it  bred  a  bitter  thought  here  and  there.  Manufactures 
were  not  likely  to  spring  up  in  America.  "No  man 
who  can  have  a  piece  of  land  of  his  own,  sufficient  by 
his  labor  to  subsist  his  family  in  plenty/'  said  Mr. 
Franklin  long  afterwards,  "is  poor  enough  to  be  a 
manufacturer  and  work  for  a  master.  Hence,  while 
there  is  land  enough  in  America  for  our  people,  there 
can  be  no  manufactures  to  any  amount  or  value."  But 
the  woollen  manufacturers  in  England  meant  to  take 
no  chances  in  the  matter ;  and  the  colonists  did  no  more 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

than  grumble  upon  occasion  at  the  restraints  of  a  law 
which  they  had  no  serious  thought  of  breaking. 

It  was  not  breaches  of  the  Acts  of  Navigation  and 
the  acts  concerning  woollen  manufacture  that  the 
ministers  found  it  necessary  to  turn  their  heed  to  when 
the  war  ended,  but,  rather,  the  open  piracies  of  the 
southern  seas.  By  the  treaty  of  Ryswick,  which  brought 
peace  (1697),  France,  England,  Holland,  and  Spain, 
the  high  contracting  parties,  solemnly  bound  them- 
selves to  make  common  cause  against  buccaneering. 
Spain  and  England  had  been  mutually  bound  since 
1670  to  abolish  it.  Buccaneering  abounded  most  on 
the  coasts  of  America.  The  lawless  business  had 
begun  long  ago.  Spain  had  provoked  it.  She  had 
taken  possession  of  all  Central  and  South  America 
and  of  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  and  had  bidden 
all  other  nations  stand  off  and  touch  nothing,  while 
her  fleets  every  year  for  generations  together  came 
home  heavy  with  treasure.  She  had  denied  them  the 
right  of  trade;  she  had  forbidden  their  seamen  so  much 
as  to  get  stores  for  their  own  use  anywhere  within  the 
waters  of  Spanish  America.  She  treated  every  ship 
as  an  intruder  which  she  found  in  the  southern  seas, 
and  the  penalties  she  inflicted  for  intrusion  upon  her 
guarded  coasts  went  the  length  of  instant  drowning 
or  hangings  at  the  yard-arm.  It  was  a  day  when  there 
was  no  law  at  sea.  Every  prudent  man  supplied  his 
ship  with  arms,  and  was  his  own  escort ;  and  since  Spain 
was  the  common  bully,  she  became  the  common  enemy. 
English  and  French  and  Dutch  seamen  were  not  likely 
very  long  to  suffer  themselves  to  be  refused  what  they 
needed  at  her  ports;  and  after  getting  what  they  need- 
ed, they  went  on  to  take  whatever  they  wanted.  They 
20 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

were  intruders,  anyway,  for  whatever  purpose  they 
came,  and  they  might  as  well,  as  a  witty  Frenchman 
among  them  said,  "repay  themselves  beforehand"  for 
the  losses  they  would  suffer  should  Spanish  cruisers 
find  and  take  them. 

The  spirit  of  adventure  and  of  gain  grew  on  them 
mightily.  At  first  they  contented  themselves  with  an 
illicit  trade  at  the  unguarded  ports  of  quiet,  half-desert- 
ed islands  like  Hispaniola,  where  they  could  get  hides 
and  tallow,  smoked  beef  and  salted  pork,  in  exchange 
for  goods  smuggled  in  from  Europe.  But  they  did 
not  long  stop  at  that.  The  exciting  risks  and  notable 
profits  of  the  business  made  it  grow  like  a  story  of  ad- 
venture. The  ranks  of  the  lawless  traders  filled  more 
and  more  with  every  sort  of  reckless  adventurer  and 
every  sort  of  unquiet  spirit  who  found  the  ordinary  world 
stale  and  longed  for  a  change  of  luck,  as  well  as  with 
hosts  of  common  thieves  and  natural  outlaws.  Such 
men,  finding  themselves  inevitably  consorting,  felt 
their  comradeship,  helped  one  another  when  they  could, 
arid  made  a  common  cause  of  robbing  Spain,  calling 
themselves  "Brethren  of  the  Coast."  They  took  pos- 
session, as  their  numbers  increased,  of  the  little  twin 
islands  of  St.  Christopher  and  Nevis  for  rendezvous 
and  headquarters,  and  fortified  distant  Tortuga  for  a 
stronghold;  and  their  power  grew  apace  through  all 
the  seventeenth  century,  until  no  Spanish  ship  was 
safe  on  the  seas  though  she  carried  the  flag  of  an  ad- 
miral, and  great  towns  had  either  to  buy  them  off  or 
submit  to  be  sacked  at  their  pleasure.  They  mustered 
formidable  fleets  and  counted  their  desperate  seamen 
by  the  thousands. 

They  were  most  numerous,  most  powerful,  most  to 
21 


A    HISTORY    OF  THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

be  feared  at  the  very  time  the  English  colony  was  begun 
at  Charleston  (1670).  All  the  English  sea  coast  at 
the  south,  indeed,  was  theirs  in  a  sense.  They  were 
regulars,  not  outlaws,  when  France  or  Holland  or  Eng- 
land was  at  war  with  Spain,  for  the  great  governments 
did  not  scruple  to  give  them  letters  of  marque  when 
they  needed  their  assistance  at  sea.  English  buc- 


CHARLESTON,   FROM    THE   HARBOR,    1742 

cancers  had  helped  Sir  William  Penn  take  Jamaica 
for  Cromwell  in  1655.  And  when  there  was  no  war, 
the  silent,  unwatched  harbors  of  the  long  American 
sea  coast  were  their  favorite  places  of  refuge  and  repair. 
New  Providence,  England's  best  anchorage  and  most 
convenient  port  of  rendezvous  in  the  Bahamas,  became 
their  chief  place  of  welcome  and  recruiting.  The  coming 
of  settlers  did  not  disconcert  them.  It  pleased  them, 
rather.  The  settlers  did  not  molest  them, — had  secret 
22 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

reasons,  as  they  kne\v,  to  be  glad  to  see  them.  There 
were  the  English  navigation  laws,  as  well  as  the  Span- 
ish, to  be  evaded,  and  the  goods  they  brought  to  the 
closed  markets  were  very  cheap  and  very  welcome, — and 
no  questions  were  asked.  They  were  abundantly  wel- 
come, too,  to  the  goods  they  bought.  For  thirty  years 
their  broad  pieces  of  gold  and  their  Spanish  silver  were 
almost  the  only  currency  the  Carolinas  could  get  hold 
of.  Governors  winked  at  their  coming  and  going, — 
even  allowed  them  to  sell  their  Spanish  prizes  in  Eng- 
lish ports.  Charleston,  too,  and  the  open  bays  of  Albe- 
marle  Sound  were  not  more  open  to  them  than  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  and  Providence,  and  even  now 
and  again  the  ports  of  Massachusetts.  They  got  no 
small  part  of  their  recruits  from  among  the  lawless 
and  shiftless  men  who  came  out  of  England  or  Vir- 
ginia to  the  Carolinas  for  a  new  venture  in  a  new  coun- 
try where  law  was  young. 

Richard  Coote,  the  Earl  of  Bellomont,  came  out  in 
1698  to  be  Governor  General  of  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire,  specially  instruct- 
ed to  stamp  out  the  piracy  of  the  coasts ;  but  he  found 
it  no  light  task.  His  predecessor  in  the  government  of 
New  York,  Benjamin  Fletcher,  had  loved  the  Brethren 
of  the  Coast  very  dearly:  they  had  made  it  to  his  in- 
terest to  like  them;  and  the  merchants  of  New  York, 
as  of  the  other  seaport  towns,  were  noticeably  slow 
to  see  the  iniquity  of  the  proscribed  business.  Lord 
Bellomont  bitterh^  complained  that  the  authorities  of 
Rhode  Island  openly  gave  notorious  pirates  counte- 
nance and  assistance.  Mr.  Edward  Randolph,  whose 
business  it  was  to  look  after  the  King's  revenues,  de- 
clared in  his  anger  that  North  Carolina  was  peopled  by 
23 


A   HISTORY  OF   THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

nobody  but  smugglers,  runaway  servants,  and  pirates. 
South  Carolina,  fortunately,  had  seen  the  folly  of  har- 
boring the  outlaws  by  the  time  Lord  Bellomont  set 
about  his  suppression  in  the  north.  Not  only  had  her 
population  by  that  time  been  recruited  and  steadied 
by  the  coming  in  of  increasing  numbers  of  law-abiding 
and  thrifty  colonists  to  whom  piracy  was  abhorrent, 
but  she  had  begun  also  to  produce  great  crops  of  rice 
for  whose  exportation  she  could  hardly  get  ships 
enough,  and  had  found  that  her  whilom  friends  the 
freebooters  did  not  scruple  to  intercept  her  cargoes  on 
their  way  to  the  profitable  markets  of  Holland,  Ger- 
many, Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Portugal.  She  pres- 
ently began,  therefore,  to  use  a  great  pair  of  gallows, 
set  up  very  conspicuously  on  "Execution  Dock"  at 
Charleston,  for  the  diligent  hanging  of  pirates.  But 
the  coast  to  the  northward  still  showed  them  hospitality, 
and  Lord  Bellomont  made  little  headway  at  New  York, 
— except  that  he  brought  the  notorious  Captain  Kidd 
to  justice.  William  Kidd,  a  Scotsman,  had  made  New 
York  his  home,  and  had  won  there  the  reputation  of 
an  honest  and  capable  man  and  an  excellent  ship  cap- 
tain; but  when  he  was  given  an  armed  vessel  strongly 
manned,  and  the  King's  commission  to  destroy  the 
pirates  of  the  coast,  the  temptation  of  power  was  too 
great  for  him.  He  incontinently  turned  pirate  him- 
self, and  it  fell  to  Lord  Bellomont  to  send  him  to  Eng- 
land to  be  hanged. 

The  interval  of  peace  during  which  English  govern- 
ors in  America  could  give  their  thoughts  to  the  sup- 
pression of  piracy  proved  all  too  short.  "Queen 
Anne's  War"  followed  close  upon  the  heels  of  King 
William's,  and  the  French  and  Indians  became  once 
24 


LORD    BELLOMONT 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

again  more  threatening  than  the  buccaneers.  Nev- 
ertheless some  important  affairs  of  peace  were  settled 
before  the  storm  of  war  broke  again.  For  one  thing, 
Mr.  Penn  was  able  once  more  to  put  in  order  the  govern- 
ment of  Pennsylvania.  For  two  years  (1692-1694) 
he  had  been  deprived  of  his  province,  because,  as  every 
one  knew,  he  had  been  on  very  cordial  terms  of  friend- 
ship with  James  Stuart,  the  discredited  King,  and  it 
was  charged  that  he  had  taken  part  in  intrigues  against 
the  new  sovereign.  But  it  was  easy  for  him  to  prove, 
when  the  matter  was  dispassionately  looked  into,  that 
he  had  done  nothing  dishonorable  or  disloyal,  and 
his  province  was  restored  to  him.  In  1699  he  found 
time  to  return  to  America  and  reform  in  person  the 
administration  of  the  colony.  Bitter  jealousies  and 
sharp  factional  differences  had  sprung  up  there  while 
affairs  were  in  confusion  after  the  coming  in  of  William 
and  Mary,  and  the  two  years  Mr.  Penn  spent  in  their 
correction  (1699-1701)  were  none  too  long  for  the  work 
he  had  to  do.  He  did  it,  however,  in  his  characteristic 
healing  fashion,  by  granting  privileges,  more  liberal 
and  democratic  than  ever,  in  a  new  charter.  One  chief 
difficulty  Ia3r  in  the  fact  that  the  lower  counties  by  the 
Delaware  chafed  because  of  their  enforced  union  with 
the  newer  counties  of  Pennsylvania;  and  Mr.  Penn 
consented  to  an  arrangement  by  which  they  should 
within  three  years,  if  they  still  wished  it,  have  a  separate 
assembly  of  their  own,  and  the  right  to  act  for  them- 
selves in  all  matters  of  local  government.  Self-gov- 
ernment, indeed,  was  almost  always  his  provident  cure 
for  discontent.  He  left  both  Pennsylvania  and  the 
Delaware  counties  free  to  choose  their  own  courts, — 
and  Philadelphia  free  to  select  her  own  officers  as  an 
26 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

independently  incorporated  city.  Had  he  been  able 
to  give  his  colony  governors  as  wise  and  temperate  as 
himself,  new  troubles  might  have  been  avoided  as  suc- 
cessfully as  old  troubles  had  been  healed. 

While  Mr.  Penn  lingered  in  America  the  rights  of 
the  proprietors  of  West  Jersey,  his  own  first  province, 
passed  finally  to  the  crown.  In  1702  all  proprietary 
rights,  alike  in  East  and  in  West  Jersey,  were  formally 
surrendered  to  the  crown,  and  New  Jersey,  once  more 


WILLIAM   AND   MARY    COLLEGE   BEFORE   THE   FIRE,    1723 

a  single,  undivided  province,  became  directly  subject 
to  the  King's  government.  For  a  generation,  indeed, 
as  it  turned  out,  she  was  to  have  no  separate  governor 
of  her  own.  A  separate  commission  issued  from  the 
crown  to  the  governor  of  New  York  to  be  also  governor 
of  New  Jersey,  upon  each  appointment  in  the  greater 
province.  But  New  Jersey  kept  her  own  government, 
nevertheless,  and  her  own  way  of  life.  She  suffered 
no  merger  into  the  larger  province,  her  neighbor,  whose 
governor  happened  to  preside  over  her  affairs. 

VOL.   II.— 4  27 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Many  things  changed  and  many  things  gave  promise 
of  change  in  the  colonies  as  Mr.  Penn  looked  on.  In 
1700  Virginia  had  her  population  enriched  by  the  com- 
ing of  seven  hundred  French  Huguenots,  under  the 
leadership  of  the  Marquis  de  la  Muce, — some  of  them 
Waldenses  who  had  moved,  in  exile,  through  Switzer- 
land, Alsace,  the  Low  Countries,  and  England  ere 
they  found  their  final  home  of  settlement  in  Virginia, 
—all  of  them  refugees  because  of  the  terror  that  had 
been  in  France  for  all  Protestants  since  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  (1685).  That  same  year,  1700, 
Williamsburg,  the  new  village  capital  of  the  "  Old  Do- 
minion," grew  very  gay  with  company  come  in  from  all 
the  river  counties,  from  neighboring  colonies,  too,  and 
even  from  far-off  New  England,  to  see  the  first  class 
graduated  from  the  infant  college  of  William  and  Mary. 
The  next  year  (1701)  Connecticut,  teeming  more  and 
more  with  a  thrifty  people  with  its  own  independent 
interests  and  resources,  and  finding  Harvard  College 
at  Cambridge  too  far  away  for  the  convenience  of  those 
of  her  own  youth  who  wished  such  training  as  ministers 
and  professional  men  in  general  needed,  set  up  a  college 
of  her  o\vn, — the  college  which  half  a  generation  later 
she  called  Yale,  because  of  Mr.  Elihu  Yale's  gift  of 
eight  hundred  pounds  in  books  and  money. 

Then  King  William  died  (1702,— Mary,  his  queen 
and  consort,  being  dead  these  eight  years),  and  Anne 
became  queen.  It  was  a  year  of  climax  in  the  public 
affairs  of  Europe.  In  1701,  Louis  XIV.  had  put  his 
grandson,  Philip  of  Anjou,  on  the  throne  of  Spain,  in 
direct  violation  of  his  treaty  obligations  to  England, 
and  to  the  manifest  upsetting  of  the  balance  of  power 
in  Europe,  openly  rejoicing  that  there  were  no  longer 
28 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 


JOHN   CHURCHILL,   DUKE   OF   MARLBOROUGH 

any  Pyrenees,  but  only  a  single,  undivided  Bourbon 
power  from  Flanders  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar;  and 
had  defied  England,  despite  his  promises  made  at  Rys- 
wick,  by  declaring  James's  son  the  rightful  heir  to 
the  English  throne.  Instantly  England,  Holland,  and 
29 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Austria  drew  together  in  grand  alliance  against  the 
French  aggression,  and  for  eleven  years  Italy,  Ger- 
many, and  the  Netherlands  rang  with  the  War  of  the 
Spanish  Succession.  The  storm  had  already  broken 
when  Anne  became  queen. 

England  signalized  the  war  by  giving  a  great  general 
to  the  world.  It  was  the  day  of  John  Churchill,  Duke 
of  Marlborough,  of  whose  genius  soldiers  gossiped  to 
their  neighbors  and  their  children  for  half  a  century 
after  the  great  struggle  was  over.  The  English  took 
Gibraltar  (1704).  Prince  Eugene  of  Savoy  helped 
great  Marlborough  to  the  famous  victory  of  Blenheim 
(1705), — and  Virginians  were  not  likely  to  forget  that 
it  was  Colonel  Parke,  of  Virginia,  who  took  the  news  of 
that  field  to  the  Queen.  Marlborough  won  at  Ramillies 
and  Eugene  at  Turin  (1706).  The  two  great  captains 
triumphed  together  at  Oudenarde  (1708)  and  at  Malpla- 
quet  (1709).  The  crowns  of  France  and  Spain  were 
separated,  and  France  was  lightened  of  her  overwhelm- 
ing weight  in  the  balance  of  power. 

But  for  the  colonies  in  America  it  was  only  "Queen 
Anne's  War/'  full  of  anxiety,  suffering,  and  disap- 
pointment,— massacres  on  the  border,  expeditions  to 
the  north  blundered  and  mismanaged,  money  and 
lives  spent  with  little  to  show  for  the  sacrifice.  The 
ministers  at  home  had  made  no  preparation  in  America 
for  the  renewal  of  hostilities.  There  had  been  warnings 
enough,  and  appeals  of  deep  urgency,  sent  out  of  the 
colonies.  Every  observant  man  of  affairs  there  saw 
what  must  come.  But  warnings  and  appeals  had  not 
been  heeded.  Lord  Bellomont,  that  self-respecting  gen- 
tleman and  watchful  govemor,  had  told  the  ministers 
at  home  very  plainly  that  there  ought  to  be  a  line  of 
30 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 


frontier  posts  at  the  north,  with  soldiers  for  colonists, 
and  that  simply  to  pursue  the  Indians  once  and  again 
to  the  depths  of  the  forests  was  as  useless  "as  to  pur- 
sue birds  that  are  on  the  wing/'  An  English  prisoner 
in  the  hands  of  the  French  had  sent  word  what  he 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 


heard  they  meant  to  do  for  the  extension  of  their  boun- 
daries and  their  power.  The  deputy  governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania had  proposed  a  colonial  militia  to  "be  kept  at 
the  frontier.  Certain  private  gentlemen  of  the  northern 
settlements  had  begged  for  a  common  governor  "of 
worth  and  honor,"  and  for  some  system  of  common 
defence.  Mr.  Penn,  looking  on  near  at  hand,  had  ad- 
vised that  the  colonists  be  drawn  together  in  intercourse 
and  interest  by  a  common  coinage,  a  common  rule  of 

citizenship,  a  com- 
mon system  of  jus- 
tice, and  by  duties 
on  foreign  timber 
which  would  in 
some  degree  offset 
the  burdens  of  the 
Navigation  Acts, 
— as  well  as  by 
common  organiza- 
tion and  action 
against  the  French 
But  nothing  had 


FRENCH    HUGUENOT    CHURCH,  NEW  YORK,   1704 


and  against  the  pirates  of  the  coast, 
been  done. 

Even  the  little  that  had  been  gained  in  King  Will- 
iam's War  had  now  to  be  gained  all  over  again.  Sir 
William  Phips  had  taken  Port  Royal  very  handily  at  the 
outset  of  that  war  (1690),  and  Acadia  with  it,  and  there 
had  been  no  difficulty  in  holding  the  conquered  prov- 
ince until  the  war  ended;  but  the  treaty  of  Ryswick 
had  handed  back  to  the  French  everything  the  English 
had  taken,  the  statesmen  of  England  hardly  heeding 
America  at  all  in  the  terms  they  agreed  to, — and  so  a 
beginning  was  once  more  to  be  made. 
32 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

The  war  began,  as  every  one  knew  it  must,  with 
forays  on  the  border:  the  Indians  were  the  first  afoot, 
and  were  more  to  be  feared  than  the  French.  The 
first  movement  of  the  English  was  made  at  the  south, 
where,  before  the  first  year  (1702)  of  the  war  was  out, 
the  Carolinians  struck  at  the  power  of  Spain  in  Florida. 
They  sent  a  little  force  against  St.  Augustine,  and 
easily  swept  the  town  itself,  but  stood  daunted  before 
the  walls  of  the  castle,  lacking  cannon  to  reduce  it, 
and  came  hastily  away  at  sight  of  two  Spanish  ships 
standing  into  the  harbor,  leaving  their  very  stores 
and  ammunition  behind  them  in  their  panic.  They 
had  saddled  the  colony  with  a  debt  of  six  thousand 
pounds  and  gained  nothing.  But  they  at  least  kept 
their  own  borders  safe  against  the  Indians  and  their 
own  little  capital  at  Charleston  safe  against  reprisals 
by  the  Spaniards.  The  Apalachees,  who  served  the 
Spaniards  on  the  border,  they  swept  from  their  forest 
country  in  1703,  and  made  their  border  quiet  by  fire 
and  sword,  driving  hundreds  of  the  tribesmen  they 
did  not  kill  to  new  seats  beyond  the  Savannah.  Three 
37ears  went  by  before  they  were  in  their  turn  attacked 
by  a  force  out  of  Florida.  Upon  a  day  in  August, 
1706,  while  the  little  capital  lay  stricken  with  yellow 
fever,  a  fleet  of  five  French  vessels  appeared  off  the 
bar  at  their  harbor  mouth,  bringing  Spanish  troops 
from  Havana  and  St.  Augustine.  There  was  a  quick 
rally  to  meet  them.  Colonial  militia  went  to  face  their 
landing  parties;  gallant  Colonel  Rhett  manned  a  little 
flotilla  to  check  them  on  the  water ;  and  they  were  driven 
off,  leaving  two  hundred  and  thirty  prisoners  and  a 
captured  ship  behind  them.  The  southern  coast  could 
take  care  of  itself. 

»•-?  33 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Nothing   had  been   done  meanwhile  in   the  north. 
The  first  year  of  the  war  (1702)  had  seen  Boston  robbed 


OLD   SWEDES   CHURCH,  WILMINGTON,  DELAWARE 

of  three  hundred  of  her  inhabitants  by  the  scourge  of 

srnall-pox,  and  New  York  stricken  with  a  fatal  fever 

brought  out  of  the  West  Indies  from   which  no  man 

34 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

could  rally.  That  dismal  year  lingered  for  many  a 
day  in  the  memory  of  the  men  of  the  middle  colonies 
as  "the  time  of  the  great  sickness."  The  northern- 
most border  had  been  harried  from  Wells  to  Casco  by 
the  French  Indians  (1703);  Deerfield,  far  away  in  the 
wilderness  by  the  Connecticut,  had  been  fearfully  dealt 
with  at  dead  of  night,  in  the  mid-winter  of  1704,  by  a 
combined  force  of  French  and  Indians;  in  1705  the 
French  in  Acadia  had  brought  temporary  ruin  upon  the 
English  trading  posts  in  Newfoundland;  and  a  French 
privateer  had  insolently  come  in  open  day  into  the 
Bay  at  New  York,  as  if  to  show  the  English  there  how 
defenceless  their  great  harbor  was,  with  all  the  coast 
about  it  (1705).  And  yet  there  had  been  no  counter- 
stroke  by  the  English, — except  that  Colonel  Church, 
of  Massachusetts,  had  spent  the  summer  of  1704  in 
destroying  as  he  could  the  smaller  and  less  defended 
French  and  Indian  villages  upon  the  coasts  which  lay 
about  the  Penobscot  and  the  Bay  of  Fundy.  In  1707 
a  serious  attempt  was  made  to  take  Port  Royal.  Colo- 
nel March  took  a  thousand  men  against  the  place,  in 
twenty  -  three  transports,  convoyed  by  a  man  -  of  -  war, 
and  regularly  laid  siege  to  it;  but  lacked  knowledge  of 
the  business  he  had  undertaken  and  failed  utterly. 

Another  three  years  went  by  before  anything  was 
accomplished;  and  the  French  filled  them  in,  as  before, 
with  raids  and  massacres.  Again  Haverhill  was  sur- 
prised, sacked,  and  burned  (1708).  The  English  were 
driven  from  the  Bahama  islands.  An  expedition  elab- 
orately prepared  in  England  to  be  sent  against  the 
French  in  America  was  countermanded  (1709),  because 
a  sudden  need  arose  to  use  it  at  home.  Everything 
attempted  seemed  to  miscarry  as  of  course.  And  then 
35 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

at  last  fortune  turned  a  trifle  kind.  Colonel  Francis 
Nicholson,  governor  of  Virginia  till  1705,  had  gone  to 
England  when  he  saw  things  stand  hopelessh7  still 
in  America,  and,  being  a  man  steadfast  and  hard  to 
put  by,  was  at  last  able,  in  1710,  to  obtain  and  bring 
assistance  in  person  from  over  sea.  He  had  recom- 


NEW   YORK    SLAVE   MARKET  ABOUT    1730 

mended,  while  yet  he  was  governor  of  Virginia,  it  was 
recalled,  that  the  colonies  be  united  under  a  single 
viceroy  and  defended  by  a  standing  army  for  which 
they  should  themselves  be  made  to  pay.  The  min- 
isters at  home  had  been  too  prudent  to  take  that  ad- 
vice; but  they  listened  now  to  his  appeal  for  a  force  to 
be  sent  to  America.  By  the  24th  of  September,  1710,  he 
lay  off  Port  Royal  with  a  fleet  of  thirty-five  sail,  besides 
hospital  and  store  ships,  with  four  regiments  of  New 

36 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 


England  militia  aboard  his  transports  and  a  detach- 
ment of  marines.  On  the  1st  of  October  he  opened  the 
fire  of  three  batteries  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the 
little  fort  that  guarded  the  place,  and  within  twenty- 
four  hours  he  had  brought  it  to  its  capitulation,  as 
Sir  William  Phips  had  done  twenty  years  before.  Aca- 
dia  was  once  more  a  conquered  province  of  England. 
Colonel  Nicholson  renamed  its  port  Annapolis  Royal, 
in  honor  of  the  Queen  whom  he  served.  The  name  of 
the  province  itself  the  English  changed  to  Nova  Scotia. 
Two  years  more,  and  the  war  was  practically  over; 
but  no  victories  had  been  added  to  that  lonety  achieve- 
ment at  Port  Royal.  Colonel  Nicholson  went  from 
his  triumph  in  Acadia  back  to  England  again,  to  solic- 
it a  yet  stronger 
force  to  be  taken 
against  Quebec, 
and  once  more  got 
what  he  wanted. 
In  midsummer  of 
1711  Sir  Hovenden 
Walker  arrived  at 
Boston  with  a 
great  fleet  of  trans' 
ports  and  men-of- 
war,  bringing  Colo- 
nel Hill  and  seven  of  Marlborough's  veteran  regi- 
ments to  join  the  troops  of  New  England  in  a  decisive 
onset  upon  the  stronghold  of  New  France.  Colonel 
Nicholson  was  to  lead  the  colonial  levies  through  the 
forests  to  Quebec ;  Sir  Hovenden  Walker  was  to  ascend 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  strike  from  the  river.  But  neither 
force  reached  Quebec.  The  admiral  blundered  in  the 
37 


BROAD   STREET,   NEW   YORK,   IN    1740 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

fogs  which  beset  him  at  the  mouth  of  the  great  stream, 
lost  eight  ships  and  almost  a  thousand  men,  and  then 
put  about  in  dismay  and  steered  straightway  for  Eng- 
land, to  have  his  flag-ship  blow  up  under  him  at  Spit- 
head.  Colonel  Nicholson  heard  very  promptly  of  the 
admiral's  ignoble  failure,  and  did  not  make  his  march. 
The  next  year,  1712,  the  merchants  of  Quebec  sub- 
scribed a  fund  to  complete  the  fortifications  of  their 
rock-built  city,  and  even  women  volunteered  to  work 
upon  them,  that  they  might  be  finished  ere  the  English 
came  again.  But  the  English  did  not  come.  That 
very  summer  brought  a  truce;  and  in  March,  1713, 
the  war  ended  with  the  peace  of  Utrecht.  The  treaty 
gave  England  Hudson's  Bay,  Acadia,  Newfoundland, 
and  the  little  island  of  St.  Christopher  alongside  Nevis 
in  the  Lesser  Antilles. 

"Queen  Anne's  War"  was  over;  but  there  was  not 
yet  settled  peace  in  the  south.  While  the  war  lasted 
North  Carolina  had  had  to  master,  in  blood  and  terror, 
the  fierce  Iroquois  tribe  of  the  Tuscaroras,  who  mus- 
tered twelve  hundred  warriors  in  the  forests  which  lay 
nearest  the  settlements.  And  when  the  war  was  over 
South  Carolina  had  to  conquer  a  whole  confederacy 
of  tribes  whom  the  Spaniards  had  stirred  up  to  attack 
her.  The  Tuscaroras  had  seemed  friends  through  all 
the  first  years  of  the  English  settlement  on  their  coast; 
but  the  steady,  ominous  advance  of  the  English,  en- 
croaching mile  by  mile  upon  their  hunting  grounds,  had 
at  last  maddened  them  to  commit  a  sudden  and  awful 
treachery.  In  September,  1711,  they  fell  with  all  their 
natural  fury  upon  the  nearer  settlements,  and  for  three 
days  swept  them  with  an  almost  continuous  carnage. 
The  next  year  the  awful  butchery  was  repeated.  Both 
38 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

times  the  settlements  found  themselves  too  weak  to 
make  effective  resistance;  both  times  aid  was  sent  from 
South  Carolina,  by  forced  marches  through  the  long 
forests;  and  finally,  in  March,  1713,  the  month  of  the 
peace  of  Utrecht,  an  end  was  made.  The  Tuscaroras 
were  attacked  and  overcome  in  their  last  stronghold. 
The  remnant  that  was  left  migrated  northward  to  join 


OLD   STATE   HOUSE   AT   ANNAPOLIS.   MARYLAND 

their  Iroquois  kinsmen  in  New  York,— and  Carolina 
was  quit  of  them  forever. 

The  strong  tribes  which  held  sway  in  the  forests  of 
South  Carolina, — the  Yamassees,  Creeks,  Catawbas, 
and  Cherokees, — were  no  kinsmen  of  these  alien  Iro- 
quois out  of  the  north,  and  had  willingly  lent  their  aid 
to  the  English  to  destroy  them.  But,  the  war  over,  the 
Spaniards  busied  themselves  to  win  these  tribes  also 
to  a  conspiracy  against  the  English  settlements,  and 
39 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

succeeded  only  too  well.  They  joined  in  a  great  con- 
federacy, and  put  their  seven  or  eight  thousand  bra\es 
on  the  war-path  to  destroy  the  English.  For  almost 
a  whole  year  (April,  1715,  to  February,  1716)  they  kept 
to  their  savage  work  unsubdued,  until  full  four  hun- 
dred whites  had  lost  their  lives  at  their  hands.  Then 
the  final  reckoning  came  for  them  also,  and  the  shat- 
tered remnants  of  their  tribes  sought  new  homes  for 
themselves  as  they  could.  The  savages  had  all  but 
accomplished  their  design  against  the  settlements.  The 
awful  work  of  destroying  them  left  the  Carolinas  upon 
the  verge  of  utter  exhaustion,  drained  of  blood  and 
money,  almost  without  crops  of  food  to  subsist  upon, 
quite  without  means  to  bear  the  heavy  charges  of  gov- 
ernment in  a  time  of  war  and  sore  disorder.  There 
were  some  among  the  disheartened  settlers  who  thought 
of  abandoning  their  homes  there  altogether  and  seek- 
ing a  place  where  peace  might  be  had  at  a  less  terrible 
cost.  But  there  was  peace  at  least,  and  the  danger  of 
absolute  destruction  had  passed. 

New  York  had  had  her  own  fright  while  the  war 
lasted.  A  house  blazed  in  the  night  (1712),  and  certain 
negroes  who  had  gathered  about  it  killed  some  of  those 
who  came  to  extinguish  the  flames.  It  was  rumored 
that  there  had  been  a  plot  among  the  negroes  to  put 
the  whole  of  the  town  to  the  torch;  an  investigation 
was  made,  amidst  a  general  panic  which  rendered  calm 
inquiry  into  such  a  matter  impossible;  and  nineteen 
blacks  were  executed. 

But  in  most  of  the  colonies  domestic  affairs  had  gone 

quietly  enough,   the  slow  war  disturbing  them  very 

little.     Connecticut  found  leisure  of  thought  enough, 

in  1708,  to  collect  a  synod  at  Say  brook  and  formulate 

40 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

a  carefully  considered  constitution  for  her  churches, 
which  her  legislature  the  same  year  adopted.  In  1707 
New  York  witnessed  a  notable  trial  which  established 
the  freedom  of  dissenting  pulpits.  Lord  Cornbury, 
the  profligate  governor  of  the  province,  tried  to  silence 
the  Rev.  Francis  Mackemie,  a  Presbyterian  minister, 
— pretending  that  the  English  lawrs  of  worship  and 


NEW  YORK,  FROM  THE  HARBOR,  ABOUT  1725 

doctrine  were  in  force  in  New  York;  but  a  jury  made 
short  work  of  acquitting  him.  Massachusetts  en- 
dured Joseph  Dudley  as  governor  throughout  the  war 
(1702-1715),  checking  him  very  pertinaciously  at  times 
when  he  needed  the  assistance  of  her  General  Court, 
but  no  longer  refusing  to  live  with  reasonable  patience 
under  governors  not  of  her  own  choosing. 
Fortunately  for  the  Carolinas,  a  very  notable  man 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

had  become  governor  of  Virginia  ere  the  Tuscaroras 
took  the  war-path.  There  were  tribes  at  the  border, 
— Nottoways,  Meherrins,  and  even  a  detached  group 
of  the  Tuscaroras  themselves,— who  would  have  joined 


ALEXANDER    SPOTSWOOD 


in  the  savage  conspiracy  against  the  whites  had  not 
Colonel  Spotswood  been  governor  in  Virginia  and  shown 
himself  capable  of  holding  them  quiet  with  a  steady 
hand  of  authority, — a  word  of  conciliation  and  a  hint 
of  force.  Alexander  Spotswood  was  no  ordinary  man. 
42 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 


He  added  to  a  gentle  breeding  a  manly  bearing  such 

as  Virginians  loved,  and  the  administrative  gifts  which 

so  many  likable  governors  had  lacked.     His  govern- 

ment  was   conducted   with   clear-eyed   enterprise   and 

steady  capacity.     It  added 

to  his  consequence  that  he 

had  borne  the  Queen's  com- 

mission in  the  forces  of  the 

great  Marlborough  on  the 

field  of  Blenheim,  and  came 

to    his-   duty    in    Virginia 

(1710)  bearing  a  wound  re- 

ceived on  that  famous  field. 

His    blood    he    took    from 

Scotland,  where  the  distin- 

guished annals  of  his  fam-    BRENTON  CHUKCII,W,,FRE  GOVERNOR 

ily  might  be  read  in  many          SPOTSWOOD  WORSHIPPED 

a  public  record  ;  and  a  Scot- 

tish energy  entered  with  him  into  the  government  of  Vir- 

ginia, —  as  well  as  a  Scottish  candor  and  directness  in 

speech,  —to  the  great  irritation  presently  of  James  Blair, 

as  aggressive  a  Scotsman  as  he,  and  more  astute  and 

masterful. 

It  was  Colonel  Spotswood  who,  in  1716,  gathered  a 
company  of  gentlemen  about  him  for  a  long  ride  of 
discovery  into  the  Alleghanies.  They  put  their  horses 
through  the  very  heart  of  the  long  wilderness,  and 
won  their  way  despite  all  obstacles  to  a  far  summit  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  whence,  first  among  all  their  coun- 
trymen, they  looked  forth  to  the  westward  upon  the 
vast  slopes  which  fell  away  to  the  Ohio  and  the  great 
basin  of  the  Mississippi.  Colonel  Spotswood,  standing 
there  the  leader  of  the  little  group,  knew  that  it  was  this 

VOL.  II.  —  5  J7 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

way  the  English  must  come  to  make  conquest  of  the 
continent.  He  urged  his  government  at  home  to  stretch 
a  chain  of  defensive  posts  beyond  the  mountains  from 
the  lakes  to  the  Mississippi,  to  keep  the  French  from 
those  inner  valleys  which  awaited  the  coming  of  the 
white  man;  but  he  did  not  pause  in  the  work  he  could 
do  himself  because  the  advice  went  unheeded.  He 
kept  the  Indians  still;  he  found  excellent  lands  for  a 
thrifty  colony  of  Germans,  and  himself  began  the  manu- 
facture of  iron  in  the  colony,  setting  up  the  first  iron 
furnace  in  America.  The  debts  of  the  colony  were 
most  of  them  discharged,  and  a  good  trade  in  corn, 
lumber,  and  salt  provisions  sprang  up  with  the  West 
Indies.  He  rebuilt  the  college,  recently  destroyed 
by  fire,  and  established  a  school  for  Indian  children. 
He  improved  as  he  could  the  currency  of  the  colon\T. 
His  works  were  the  quiet  works  of  peace  and  develop- 
ment,— except  for  his  vigorous  suppression  of  the  pirates 
of  the  coast, — and  his  administration  might  have  out- 
run the  year  1722,  which  saw  him  removed,  had  he  been 
a  touch  less  haughty,  overbearing,  unused  to  conciliat- 
ing or  pleasing  those  whose  service  he  desired.  He 
made  enemies,  and  was  at  last  ousted  by  them. 

Some  of  the  best  qualities  of  the  soldier  and  adminis- 
trator came  out  in  him  in  the  long  struggle  to  put  the 
pirates  down  once  and  for  all.  Queen  Anne's  War 
had  turned  pirates  into  privateers  and  given  pause 
to  the  stern  business  for  a  little,  but  it  began  again  in 
desperate  earnest  when  the  war  was  over  and  peace 
concluded  at  Utrecht.  It  was  officially  reported  by 
the  secretary  of  Pennsylvania  in  1717  that  there  were 
still  fifteen  hundred  pirates  on  the  coasts,  making  their 
headquarters  at  the  Cape  Fear  and  at  New  Providence 
44 


WEDRWJKTHEKlNCiHEALfHiMCHAMmCNt^'FIRF.DAVOLLEy,      Of) 
THEPWNCEfl  Hi-ALTH  IN  BURCUNDI^0  FIRED  A  VOLLEY, 

ALL  THE  RE(  T  OP  THE  KOyAL  FA!^Ly  IN  CLARET  ^»  A  VOLLEy." 

FROM  THE  JOURNAL  OF  MTONTMNE-flf  T*HERffiT)( 


GOVKKNOR    SI'OTSWOOD'S    HXFIUITION    TO    THE    BLUE    R1DGK 


COLONEL   RHETT  AND  THE   PIRATE   STEDE   BONNET 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

in  the  Bahamas,  and  sweeping  the  sea  as  they  dared 
from  Brazil  to  Newfoundland.  But  the  day  of  their 
reckoning  was  near  at  hand.  South  Carolina  had 
cleared  her  own  coasts  for  a  little  at  the  beginning  of 
the  century,  but  the  robbers  swarmed  at  her  inlets  again 
when  the  Indian  massacres  had  weakened  and  dis- 
tracted her,  and  the  end  of  the  war  with  France  set 
many  a  roving  privateersman  free  to  return  to  piracy. 
The  crisis  and  turning-point  came  in  the  year  1718. 
That  year  an  English  fleet  crossed  the  sea,  took  New 
Providence,  purged  the  Bahamas  of  piracy,  and  made 
henceforth  a  stronghold  there  for  law  and  order.  That 
same  year  Stede  Bonnet,  of  Barbadoes,  a  man  who 
had  but  the  other  day  held  a  major's  commission  in 
her  Majesty's  service,  honored  and  of  easy  fortune, 
but  now  turned  pirate,  as  if  for  pastime,  was  caught 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Cape  Fear  by  armed  ships  under 
redoubtable  Colonel  Rhett,  who  had  driven  the  French 
out  of  Charleston  harbor  thirteen  years  ago,  and  was 
taken  and  hanged  on  Charleston  dock,  all  his  crew  hav- 
ing gone  before  him  to  the  ceremony.  "This  humour 
of  going  a-pyrating,"  it  was  said,  "proceeded  from  a 
disorder  in  his  mind,  which  had  been  but  too  visible 
in  him  some  time  before  this  wicked  undertaking;  and 
which  is  said  to  have  been  occasioned  by  some  discom- 
forts he  found  in  a  married  state " ;  but  the  law  saw 
nothing  of  that  in  what  he  had  done.  While  Bonnet 
awaited  his  condemnation,  Edward  Thatch,  the  fam- 
ous "Blackbeard,"  whom  all  the  coast  dreaded,  went 
a  like  just  way  to  death,  trapped  within  Ocracoke  Inlet 
by  two  stout  craft  sent  against  him  out  of  Virginia  by 
Colonel  Spotswood.  And  so,  step  by  step,  the  purging 
went  on.  South  Carolina  had  as  capable  a  governor 
47 


PORTRAIT  OF   THE   PIRATE   EDWARD   THATCH 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

as  Virginia  in  Robert  Johnson;  and  the  work  done 
by  these  and  like  men  upon  the  coasts,  and  by  the  Eng- 
lish ships  in  the  West  Indies,  presently  wiped  piracy, 
out.  By  1730  there  was  no  longer  anything  for  ships 
to  fear  on  those  coasts  save  the  Navigation  Acts  and 
stress  of  sea  weather. 

It  was  a  long  coast,  and  it  took  a  long  time  to  carry 
law  and  order  into  every  bay  and  inlet.  But  every 
year  brought  increase  of  strength  to  the  colonies,  and 
with  increase  of  strength  power  to  rule  their  coasts  as 
they  chose.  Queen  Anne's  War  over,  quiet  peace  de- 
scended upon  the  colonies  for  almost  an  entire  gener- 
ation (1712-1740).  Except  for  a  flurry  of  Indian  war- 
fare now  and  again  upon  the  borders,  or  here  and 
there  some  petty  plot  or  sudden  brawl,  quiet  reigned, 
and  peaceful  progress.  Anne,  the  queen,  died  the 
year  after  peace  was  signed  (1714);  and  the  next  37ear 
Louis  XIV.  followed  her,  the  great  king  who  had  so 
profoundly  stirred  the  politics  of  Europe.  An  old 
generation  had  passed  away,  and  new  men  and  new 
measures  seemed  now  to  change  the  whole  face  of  affairs. 
The  first  George  took  the  throne,  a  German,  not  an 
English  prince,  his  heart  in  Hannover;  and  presently 
the  affairs  of  England  fell  into  the  hands  of  Sir  Robert 
Walpole.  Sir  Robert  kept  his  power  for  twenty-one 
3^ears  (1721-1742),  and  conducted  the  government 
with  the  shrewd,  hard-headed  sense  and  administrative 
capacity  of  a  stead3r  countw  squire, — as  if  governing 
were  a  sort  of  business,  demanding,  like  other  busi- 
nesses,, peace  and  an  assured  and  equable  order  in 
affairs.  It  was  a  time  of  growth  and  recuperation, 
with  much  to  do,  but  little  to  record. 

The  colonies,  while  it  lasted,  underwent  in  many 
n.-4  49 


SIR    ROBERT   WALPOLE 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

things  a  slow  transformation.  Their  population  grew 
in  numbers  not  only,  but  also  in  variety.  By  the  end 
of  the  war  there  were  probably  close  upon  half  a  million 
people  within  their  borders,  counting  slave  with  free; 
and  with  the  return  of  peace  there  came  a  quickened 
increase.  New  England  slowly  lost  its  old  ways  of 
separate  action  as  a  self  -  constituted  confederacy;  and 
Massachusetts,  with  her  new  system  of  royal  governors 
and  a  franchise  broadened  beyond  the  lines  of  her 
churches,  by  degrees  lost  her  leadership.  She  was 
losing  her  old  temper  of  Puritan  thought.  It  was  im- 
possible to  keep  her  population  any  longer  of  the  single 
strain  of  which  it  had  been  made  up  at  the  first. 
New  elements  were  steadily  added;  and  new  elements 
brought  new  ways  of  life  and  new  beliefs.  She  was 
less  and  less  governed  by  her  pulpits ;  turned  more  and 
more  to  trade  for  sustenance;  welcomed  new-comers 
with  less  and  less  scrutiny  of  their  ways  of  thinking; 
grew  less  suspicious  of  change,  and  more  like  her 
neighbors  in  her  zest  for  progress. 

Scots-Irish  began  to  make  their  appearance  in  the 
colony,  some  of  them  going  to  New  Hampshire,  some 
remaining  in  Boston ;  and  they  were  given  a  right  will- 
ing welcome.  The  war  had  brought  sore  burdens  ol 
expense  and  debt  upon  the  people,  and  these  Scots- 
Irish  knew  the  profitable  craft  of  linen-making  which 
the  Boston  people  were  glad  to  learn,  and  use  to  clothe 
themselves;  for  povertj^,  they  declared,  "is  coming 
upon  us  as  an  armed  man."  These  new  immigrants 
brought  with  them  also  the  potato,  not  before  used  in 
New  England,  and  very  acceptable  as  an  addition  to 
the  colony's  bill  of  fare.  Small  vessels  now  began  to 
venture  out  from  Cape  Cod  and  Nantucket,  moreover, 
51 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

in  pursuit  of  the  whales  that  came  to  the  northern  coasts, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  that  daring  occupation  be- 
gan to  give  promise  of  wealth  and  of  the  building  up 
of  a  great  industry.  Population  began  slowly  to  spread 
from  the  coasts  into  the  forests  which  lay  at  the  west 
between  the  Connecticut  and  the  Hudson.  In  1730  a 
Presbj^terian  church  was  opened  in  Boston,  —  almost 
as  unmistakable  a  sign  of  change  as  King's  Chapel 
itself  had  been  with  its  service  after  the  order  of  the 
Church  of  England. 

The  middle  colonies  and  the  far  south  saw  greater 
changes  than  these.  South  Carolina  seemed  likely  to 
become  as  various  in  her  make-up  as  were  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  with  their  mixture  of  races  and 
creeds.  Scots-Irish  early  settled  within  her  borders 
also;  she  had  already  her  full  share  of  Huguenot 
blood ;  and  there  followed,  as  the  new  century  advanced 
through  the  lengthened  \Tears  of  peace,  companies  of 
Swiss  immigrants,  and  Germans  from  the  Palatinate. 
Charleston,  however,  seemed  English  enough,  and 
showed  a  color  of  aristocracy  in  her  life  which  no  one 
could  fail  to  note  who  visited  her.  Back  from  the  point 
where  the  rivers  met,  where  the  fortifications  stood, 
and  the  docks  to  which  the  ships  came,  there  ran  a 
fine  road  northward  which  Governor  Archdale,  that 
good  Quaker,  had  twenty  years  ago  declared' more 
beautiful  and  pleasant  than  any  prince  in  Europe  could 
find  to  take  the  air  upon  when  he  drove  abroad.  From 
it  on  either  side  stretched  noble  avenues  of  live  oaks, 
their  strong  lines  softened  by  the  long  drapery  of  the 
gray  moss,— avenues  which  led  to  the  broad  verandas 
of  country  residences  standing  in  cool  and  shadowy 
groves  of  other  stately  trees.  In  summer  the  odor  of 
52 


tSg^P^Sws^r^  *e\ 

^8fi*m&*$SF~       ^   .&* 


MAP   OF  THE  COAST   SETTLEMENTS,    1742 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

jasmine  filled  the  air;  and  even  in  winter  the  winds 
were  soft.  It  was  here  that  the  ruling  men  of  the 
'colony  lived,  the  masters  of  the  nearer  plantations, — 
men  bred  and  cultured  after  the  manner  of  the  Old 
.World.  The  simpler  people,  who  made  the  colony 
ivarious  with  their  differing  bloods,  lived  inland,  in 
|the  remoter  parishes,  or  near  other  harbors  above  or 
jbelow  Charleston's  port.  It  was  on  the  nearer  planta- 
,tions  round  about  Charleston  that  negro  slaves  most 
abounded;  and  there  were  more  negroes  by  several 
thousand  in  the  colony  than  white  folk.  Out  of  the 
16,750  inhabitants  of  the  colony  in  1715,  10,500  were 
slaves.  But  the  whites  were  numerous  enough  to  give 
their  governors  a  taste  of  their  quality. 

There  were  well-developed  political  parties  in  South 
Carolina,  for  all  she  was  so  small;  and  astute  and  able 
men  to  lead  them,  like  Colonel  Rhett,  now  soldier,  now 
sailor,  now  statesman,  and  Mr.  Nicholas  Trott,  now 
on  one  side  and  again  on  the  other  in  the  matter  of  self- 
government  as  against  the  authority  of  the  proprietors 
or  the  crown,  but  always  in  a  position  to  make  his  in- 
fluence felt.  The  province  practically  passed  from 
the  proprietors  to  the  crown  in  1719,  because  the  people's 
party  determined  to  be  rid  of  their  authority,  and  ousted 
their  governor,  exasperated  that  in  their  time  of  need, 
their  homes  burned  about  their  ears  by  the  savages, 
their  coasts  ravaged  by  freebooters,  they  should  have 
been  helped  not  a  whit,  but  left  to  shift  desperately 
tor  themselves.  In  1729  the  proprietors  formally  sur- 
rendered their  rights.  Colonel  Francis  Nicholson  acted 
as  provisional  governor  while  the  change  was  being 
effected  (1719-1725),  having  been  meantime  governor 
of  Acadia,  which  he  had  taken  for  the  crown.  In  1720 
54 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

he  was  knighted;  and  he  seems  to  have  acted  as  soberly 
in  this  post  in  Carolina  as  he  had  acted  in  Virginia. 
He  was  trticulent  and  whimsical  in  the  north;  but  in 
the  south  his  temper  seemed  eased  and  his  judgment 
steadied.  The  change  of  government  in  South 
Carolina  was  really  an  earnest  of  the  fact  that  the 
people's  representatives  had  won  a  just  and  reasonable 


POHICK    CHURCH,  VIRGINIA,  WHERE  WASHINGTON  WORSHIPPED 

ascendency  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony;  and  Sir  Francis 
did  not  seriously  cross  them,  but  served  them  rather, 
in  the  execution  of  their  purposes. 

Every  colony  had  its  own  movements  of  party. 
Everywhere  the  crown  desired  the  colonial  assemblies 
to  provide  a  permanent  establishment  for  the  gov- 
ernor, the  judges,  and  the  other  officers  who  held  the 
King's  commission, — fixed  salaries,  and  a  recognized 
authority  to  carry  out  instructions ;  but  everywhere  the 
people's  representatives  persistently  refused  to  grant 
either  salaries  or  any  additional  authority  which  they 
55 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

could  not  control  in  the  interest  of  their  own  rights 
from  session  to  session.  They  would  vote  salaries 
for  only  a  short  period,  generally-  a  year  at  a  time;  and 
they  steadily  denied  the  right  of  the  crown  to  extend 
or  vary  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  without  their  as- 
sent. Sometimes  a  governor  like  Mr.  Clarke,  of  New 
York,  long  a  resident  in  his  colony  and  acquainted 
with  its  temper  and  its  ways  of  thought,  got  what  he 
wanted  by  making  generous  concessions  in  matters 
under  his  own  control;  and  the  judges,  whatever  their 
acknowledged  jurisdiction,  were  likely  to  yield  to  the 
royal  wishes  with  some  servility:  for  they  were  ap- 
pointed at  the  King's  pleasure,  and  not  for  the  term 
of  their  good  behavior,  as  in  England.  But  power 
turned,  after  all,  upon  what  the  people's  legislature 
did  or  consented  to  do,  and  the  colonists  commonly 
spoke  their  minds  with  fearless  freedom. 

In  New  York  the  right  to  speak  their  minds  had  been 
tested  and  established  in  a  case  which  every  colony 
promptly  learned  of.  In  1734  and  1735  one  John  Peter 
Ziegler,  a  printer,  was  brought  to  trial  for  the  printing 
of  various  libellous  attacks  on  the  governor  and  the 
administration  of  the  colony, — attacks  which  were 
declared  to  be  highly  "derogatory  to  the  character  of 
his  Majesty's  government,"  and  to  have  a  tendency 
"to  raise  seditions  and  tumults  in  the  province";  but 
he  was  acquitted.  The  libel  was  admitted,  but  the 
jury  deemed  it  the  right  of  every  one  to  say  whatever 
he  thought  to  be  true  of  the  colony's  government;  and 
men  everywhere  noted  the  verdict. 

A  second  negro  plot  startled  New  York  in  1741,  show- 
ing itself,  as  before,  in  sudden  incendiary  fires.  It 
was  thought  that  the  slaves  had  been  incited  to  destrov 
56 


JOURNAL 

OF  TH  E 

PROCEEDINGS 

I   N 

The  Detection  of  the  Confpiracy 

FORMED    BY 
Some  Wfate  People,   in  Conjunction  with  Negro  and  other  Slaves, 

FOR 
Burning  the  City  of  NEW-YORK  in  AMERICA, 

And  Murdering  the  Inhabitants. 

Which  Confpiracy  was  partly  put  in  Execution,  by  Burning  His  Majefty'S  Houfe  in 
"Fort  GEORGE,  within  the  faid  City,  on  Wednefday  the  Eighteenth  of  March,  1741.  and 
fating  Fire  to  fcvcral  Dwelling  and  other  Houfes  there,  within  a  few  Days  fucceeding. 
And  by  another  Attempt  made  in  Profecution  of  the  fame  infernal  Scheme,  by  putting 
Fire  between  two  other  Dwell ing-Houfes-  within  the  faid  City,  on  the  Fifteenth  Day  of 
fttrvarj,.i742  ;  which  was  accidentally  and  timely  difcovered  and  extinguifhed. 

C  O  N  T  A  I  N  I  .N   G, 

I.  A  NARRATIVE    of  the  Trials,  Condemnations,  Executions,  and  'Behaviour  of  the 

feveral  Criminals,  at  the  Gallows  and  Stake,  with  their  Speeches  and  CanfeJJttni  \  with 
.Notes,  Obfervations  and  Reflections  occafionally  interfperfed  throughout  the  Whole. 

II.  AN  APPENDIX,  wherein  is  fctforth  fomc  additional  Evidence  concerning  the  faid 
Confpiracy  and  Confpirators,   which  has  come  to  Light    fmcc  their  Trials  and 
Executions. 

III.  LISTS  of  ihe  feveral  Perfons   (Whites  and  Blacks)   committed  on  Account  of  the 
Confpiracy  ;   and  of  the  feveral  Criminals  executed*  and  of  thofc  tranfportcd,    with 
the  Places  whereto. 

By  the  Recorder  of  the  City  of  NEW- YORK. 

£>uid  faciint  Domini,  audent  cum  talia  Fares  ?    Virg.  Eel. 

NEW-YORK: 

Printed  by  Janus  Parkrr,  at  the  New  Printing-Office,    1744. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF  THE   PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST   THE   NEGROES 


A   HISTORY  OF   THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

the  town;  and  there  was  an  uneasy  suspicion  that  these 
disturbing  occurrences  were  in  some  way  connected  with 
the  slave  insurrections  in  the  south.  Uprisings  of  the 
slaves  had  recently  occurred  in  the  West  Indies.  South 
Carolina  had  suffered  such  an  outbreak  a  little  more 
than  two  3^ears  before.  In  1738  armed  insurgent  negroes 
had  begun  there,  in  a  quiet  parish,  the  execution  of 
a  terrible  plot  of  murder  and  burning  which  it  had  taken 
very  prompt  and  summary  action  to  check  and  defeat. 
Such  risings  were  specially  ominous  where  the  slaves 
so  outnumbered  the  whites;  and  it  was  known  in  South 
Carolina  whence  the  uneasiness  of  the  negroes  came. 
At  the  south  of  the  province  lay  the  Spanish  colonies 
in  Florida.  Negroes  who  could  manage  to  run  away 
from  their  masters  and  cross  the  southern  border  were 
made  very  welcome  there;  the}7  were  set  free,  and  en- 
couraged in  every  hostile  purpose  that  promised  to  rob 
the  English  settlements  of  their  ease  and  peace.  Bands 
of  Yamassees  wandered  there,  too,  eager  to  avenge 
themselves  as  they  could  for  the  wof ul  defeat  and  ex- 
pulsion they  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the  Carolinians, 
and  ready  to  make  common  cause  with  the  negroes. 
When  bands  of  negroes,  hundreds  strong,  began  their 
sudden  work  of  burning,  plunder,  and  murder  where 
the  quiet  Stono  runs  to  the  sea  no  one  doubted  whence 
the  impulse  came.  And  though  a  single  rising  was 
easil>T  enough  put  down,  who  could  be  certain  that  that 
was  the  end  of  the  ominous  business?  No  wonder 
governors  at  Charleston  interested  themselves  to  in- 
crease the  number  of  white  settlers  and  make  their 
power  of  self-defence  sure. 

Such  things,  however,  serious  as  they  were,  did  not 
check  the  steady  growth  of  the  colonies.     It  was  not 
58 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

yet  questions  of  self-government  or  of  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  peace  that  dominated  their  affairs;  and 
only  those  who  observed  how  far-away  frontiers  were 
being  advanced  and  two  great  nations  being  brought 
together  for  a  reckoning  face  to  face  saw  what  was  the 
next,  the  very  near,  crisis  in  store  for  the  English 
in  America.  Through  all  that  time  of  peace  a  notable 
drama  was  in  fact  preparing.  Slowly,  but  very  surely, 
English  and  French  were  drawing  nearer  and  nearer 
within  the  continent, — not  only  in  the  north,  but  through- 
out all  the  length  of  the  great  Mississippi.  Step  by 
step  the  French  had  descended  the  river  from  their 
posts  on  the  lakes;  and  while  peace  reigned  they  had 
established  posts  at  its  mouth  and  begun  to  make  their 
way  northward  from  the  Gulf.  So  long  ago  as  1699 
they  had  built  a  stockade  at  Biloxi;  in  1700  they  had 
taken  possession  of  Mobile  Bay;  by  1716  they  had  es- 
tablished posts  at  Toulouse  (Alabama)  and  at  Natchez. 
In  1718  they  began  to  build  at  New  Orleans.  In  1719 
they  captured  and  destroyed  the  Spanish  post  at  Pensa- 
cola.  B}7  1722  there  were  five  thousand  Frenchmen 
by  the  lower  stretches  of  the  great  river;  and  their  trad- 
ing boats  were  learning  all  the  shallows  and  currents 
of  the  mighty  waterway  from  end  to  end.  Meantime, 
in  the  north,  they  advanced  their  power  to  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  began  the  construction  of  a  fort  at  Crown 
Point  (1721).  That  same  year,  1721,  French  and  Eng- 
lish built  ominously  near  each  other  on  Lake  Ontario, 
the  English  at  Oswego,  the  French  at  Niagara  among 
the  Senecas.  In  1716,  the  very  year  Governor  Spots- 
wood  rode  through  the  western  forests  of  Virginia  to 
a  summit  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  French  had  found  a 
short  way  to  the  Ohio  by  following  the  Miami  and  the 
VOL.  n.-6  59 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Wabash  down  their  widening  streams.  It  was  while 
they  thus  edged  their  way  towards  the  eastern  moun- 
tains and  drew  their  routes  closer  and  closer  to  their 
rivals  on  the  coast  that  that  adventurous,  indomitable 
people,  the  Scots-Irish,  came  pouring  of  a  sudden  into 


OSWEGO   IN    1750 

the  English  colonies,  and  very  promptly  made  it  their 
business  to  pass  the  mountains  and  take  possession 
of  the  lands  which  lay  beyond  them,  as  if  they  would 
deliberately  go  to  meet  the  French  by  the  Ohio. 

For  several  years  after  the  first  quarter  of  the  new 
century  had  run  out  immigrants  from  the  north  of  Ire- 
land came  crowding  in,  twelve  thousand  strong  by  the 
year.     In    1729  quite  five  thousand  of  them  entered 
60 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

Pennsylvania  alone:  and  they  pressed  without  hesita- 
tion and  as  if  by  preference  to  the  interior.  From  Penn- 
sylvania they  passed  along  the  broad,  inviting  valleys 
southward  into  the  western  parts  of  Virginia.  By  1730 
a  straggling  movement  of  settlers  had  begun  to  show 
itself  even  upon  the  distant  lands  of  Kentucky.  Still 
farther  south  traders  from  the  Carolinas  went  constantly 
back  and  forth  between  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  country 
by  the  Mississippi  and  the  English  settlements  at  the 
coast.  Nine  thousand  redskin  warriors  lay  there  in 
the  forests.  Some  traded  with  the  French  at  the  river, 
some  with  the  English  at  the  coast.  They  might  be- 
come foes  or  allies,  might  turn  to  the  one  side  or  the 
other,  as  passion  or  interest  led  them. 

In  1739  the  French  at  the  north  put  an  armed  sloop 
on  Champlain.  The  same  year  the  English  built  a 
fortified  post  at  Niagara.  Everywhere  the  two  peoples 
were  converging,  and  were  becoming  more  and  more 
conscious  of  what  their  approach  to  one  another  meant. 
So  long  ago  as  1720  orders  had  come  from  France  bid- 
ding the  French  commanders  on  the  St.  Lawrence  oc- 
cupy the  valley  of  the  Ohio  before  the  English  should 
get  a  foothold  there.  The  places  where  the  rivals  were 
to  meet  it  was  now  easy  to  see,  and  every  frontiersman 
saw  them  very  plainly.  The  two  races  could  not  pos- 
sess the  continent  together.  They  must  first  fight  for 
the  nearer  waterways  of  the  West,  and  after  that  for 
whatever  lay  next  at  hand. 

It  was  no  small  matter,  with  threat  of  such  things 
in  the  air,  that  the  English  chose  that  day  of  prepara- 
tion for  the  planting  of  a  new  colony,  and  planted  it  in 
the  south  between  Carolina  and  the  Florida  settlements, 
— a  barrier  and  a  menace  both  to  French  and  Spaniard. 
61 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

It  was  James  Oglethorpe,  a  soldier,  who  planned  the 
new  undertaking;  and  he  planned  it  like  a  soldier, — 
and  yet  like  a  man  of  heart  and  elevated  purpose,  too, 
for  he  was  a  philanthropist  and  a  lover  of  every  service- 
able duty,  as  well  as  a  soldier.  He  came  of  that  good 
stock  of  country  gentlemen  which  has  in  every  genera- 
tion helped  so  sturdily  to  carry  forward  the  work  of 
England,  in  the  field,  in  Parliament,  in  administrative 
office.  He  had  gone  with  a  commission  into  the  English 
army  in  the  late  war  a  mere  lad  of  fourteen  (1710);  and, 
finding  himself  still  unskilled  in  arms  when  England 
made  peace  at  Utrecht,  he  had  chosen  to  stay  for  six 
years  longer,  a  volunteer,  with  the  forces  of  Prince 
Eugene  in  the  East.  At  twenty-two  he  had  come  back 
to  England  (1718),  to  take  upon  himself  the  responsi- 
bilities which  had  fallen  to  him  by  reason  of  the  death 
of  his  elder  brothers;  and  in  1722  he  had  entered  the 
House  of  Commons,  eager  as  ever  to  learn  his  duty 
and  do  it.  He  kept  always  a  sort  of  knightly  quality, 
and  the  power  to  plan  and  hope  and  push  forward  that 
belongs  to  youth.  He  was  a  Tory,  and  believed  that 
the  Stuarts  should  have  the  throne  from  which  they 
had  been  thrust  before  he  was  born;  but  that  did  not 
make  him  disloyal.  He  was  an  ardent  reformer;  but 
that  did  not  make  him  visionary,  for  he  was  also  train- 
ed in  affairs.  His  clear-cut  features,  frank  eye,  erect 
and  slender  figure  bespoke  him  every  inch  the  high- 
bred gentleman  and  the  decisive  man  of  action. 

In  Parliament  he  had  been  made  one  of  a  committee 
to  inspect  prisons;  and  he  had  been  keenly  touched 
by  the  miserable  plight  of  the  many  honest  men  who, 
through  mere  misfortune,  were  there  languishing  in 
hopeless  imprisonment  for  debt.  He  bethought  him- 
62 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 


self  of  the  possibility  of  giving  such  men  a  new  chance 
of  life  and  the  recovery  of  fortune  in  America;  and 
the  thought  grew  into  a  plan  for  a  new  colony.  He 
knew  how  the  southern  coast  lay  vacant  between 


JAMES    OGLETHORPE 


Charleston  and  the  Spaniards  at  St.  Augustine.  There 
were  good  lands  there,  no  doubt;  and  his  soldier's  eye 
showed  him,  by  a  mere  glance  at  a  map,  how  fine  a 
point  of  vantage  it  might  be  made  if  fortified  against 
the  alien  power  in  Florida.  And  so  he  made  his  plans. 
It  should  be  a  military  colony,  a  colony  of  fortified 
63 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

posts;  and  honest  men  who  had  fallen  upon  poverty 
or  misfortune  at  home  should  have  a  chance,  if  they 
would  work,  to  profit  by  the  undertaking,  though  he 
should  take  them  from  debtors'  prisons.  Both  King 
and  Parliament  listened  very  willingly  to  what  he  pro- 
posed. The  King  signed  a  charter,  giving  the  under- 
taking into  the  hands  of  trustees,  who  were  in  effect 
to  be  proprietors  (June,  1732);  and  Parliament  voted 
ten  thousand  pounds  as  its  subscription  to  the  enter- 
prise; while  men  of  as  liberal  a  spirit  as  Oglethorpe's 
associated  themselves  with  him  to  carry  the  humane 
plan  out,  giving  money,  counsel,  and  service  without 
so  much  as  an  expectation  of  gain  to  themselves,  or 
any  material  return  for  their  outlay.  Men  had  ceased 
by  that  time  to  dream  that  colonization  would  make 
those  rich  who  fathered  it  and  paid  its  first  bills.  By 
the  end  of  October,  1732,  the  first  shipload  of  settlers 
was  off  for  America,  Oglethorpe  himself  at  their  head; 
and  by  February,  1733,  they  were  already  busy  build- 
ing their  first  settlement  on  Yamacraw  Bluff,  within 
the  broad  stream  of  the  Savannah. 

The  colony  had  in  its  charter  been  christened  Georgia, 
in  honor  of  the  King,  who  had  so  cordially  approved 
of  its  foundation;  the  settlement  at  Yamacraw,  Ogle- 
thorpe called  by  the  name  of  the  river  itself,  Savannah. 
His  colonists  were  no  mere  company  of  released  debt- 
ors and  shiftless  ne'er-do-wells.  Men  had  long  ago 
learned  the  folly  of  that  mistake,  and  Oglethorpe  was 
too  much  a  man  of  the  world  to  repeat  the  failures  of 
others.  Every  emigrant  had  been  subjected  to  a 
thorough  examination  regarding  his  antecedents,  his 
honesty,  his  character  for  energy  and  good  behavior, 
and  had  been  brought  because  he  had  been  deemed  fit. 
64 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

Italians  skilled  in  silk  culture  were  introduced  into  the 
colony.  Sober  German  Protestants  came  from  Moravia 
and  from  Salzburg,  by  Tyrol,  and  were  given  their  sepa- 
rate places  of  settlement, — as  quiet,  frugal,  industrious, 
pious  folk  as  the  first  pilgrims  at  Plymouth.  Clans- 
men from  the  Scottish  Highlands  came,  and  were  set 
at  the  extreme  south,  as  an  outpost  to  meet  the  Span- 
iard. Some  of  the  Carolina  settlers  who  would  have 
liked  themselves  to  have  the  Highlanders  for  neighbors 
tried  to  dissuade  them  from  going  to  the  spot  selected 
for  their  settlement.  They  told  them  that  the  Span- 


OGLETHORPE'S  ORDER  FOR  SUPPLIES 

iards  were  so  near  at  hand  that  they  could  shoot  them 
from  the  windows  of  the  houses  that  stood  within  the 
fort.  "Why,  then,  we  shall  beat  them  out  of  their 
fort,  and  shall  have  houses  ready  built  to  live  in!"  cried 
the  men  in  kilts,  very  cheerily,  and  went  on  to  their 
settlement. 

Fortunately  it  was  seven  years  before  the  war  with 
Spain  came  which  every  one  had  known  from  the  first 
to  be  inevitable;  and  by  that  time  the  little  colony  was 
ready  enough.  Georgia's  territory  stretched  upon  the 
coast  from  the  Savannah  to  the  Altamaha,  and  from 
the  coast  ran  back,  west  and  northwest,  to  the  sources 
of  those  rivers;  from  their  sources  due  westward  "to 
".-5  65 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

the  South  Seas."  Savannah  was  thus  planted  at 
the  very  borders  of  South  Carolina.  New  settlers  were 
placed,  as  they  came,  some  in  Savannah,  many  by 
the  upper  reaches  of  the  river.  The  Highlanders  had 
their  post  of  danger  and  honor  upon  the  Altamaha; 
and  before  war  came  new  settlers,  additional  arms 


IN    1754 

and  stores,  and  serviceable  fortifications  had  been 
placed  at  St.  Simon's  Island  at  the  mouth  of  the  Alta- 
maha. Every  settlement  was  in  some  sort  a  fortified 
military  post.  The  first  settlers  had  been  drilled  in 
arms  by  sergeants  of  the  Royal  Guards  in  London 
every  day  between  the  time  of  their  assembling  and 
the  time  of  their  departure.  Arms  and  ammunition 
were  as  abundant  almost  as  agricultural  tools  and 
food  stores  in  the  cargoes  carried  out.  Negro  slavery 
06 


^^^t^x^*-_L 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

was  forbidden  in  the  colony,  because  it  was  no  small 
part  of  Oglethorpe's  purpose  in  founding  it  to  thrust  a 
solid  wedge  of  free  settlers  between  Carolina  and  the 
country  to  the  south,  and  close  the  border  to  fugitive 
slaves.  Neither  could  any  liquor  be  brought  in.  It 
was  designed  that  the  life  of  the  settlements  should 
be  touched  with  something  of  the  rigor  of  military  dis- 
cipline; and  so  long  as  Oglethorpe  himself  was  at  hand 
laws  were  respected  and  obe}7ed,  rigid  and  unaccept- 
able though  they  were ;  for  he  wTas  a  born  ruler  of  men. 
He  had  not  chosen  very  wisely,  however,  when  he 
brought  Charles  and  John  Wesley  out  as  his  spiritual 
advisers  and  the  pastors  of  his  colony.  They  were 
men  as  inapt  at  yielding  and  as  strenuous  at  prosecut- 
ing their  own  way  of  action  as  he,  and  promoted  diver- 
sity of  opinion  quite  as  successfully  as  piety.  They 
stayed  but  three  or  four  uneasy  years  in  America,  and 
then  returned  to  do  their  great  work  of  setting  up  a 
new  dissenting  church  in  England.  George  White- 
field  followed  them  (1738)  in  their  missionary  labors, 
and  for  a  little  while  preached  acceptably  enough  in 
the  quiet  colony;  but  he,  too,  was  very  soon  back  in 
England  again.  The  very  year  Oglethorpe  brought 
Charles  Wesley  to  Georgia  (1734)  a  great  wave  of  relig- 
ious feeling  swept  over  New  England  again,— not 
sober,  self-contained,  deep-currented,  like  the  steady 
fervor  of  the  old  days,  but  passionate,  full  of  deep  ex- 
citement, agitated,  too  like  a  frenzy.  Enthusiasts 
who  saw  it  rise  and  run  its  course  were  wont  to  speak 
of  it  afterwards  as  "the  Great  Awakening,"  but  the 
graver  sort  were  deeply  disturbed  by  it.  It  did  not 
spend  its  force  till  quite  fifteen  years  had  come  and 
gone.  Mr.  Whitefield  returned  to  America  in  1739, 
67 


A  HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

to  add  to  it  the  impulse  of  his  impassioned  preaching, 
and  went  once  more  to  Georgia  also.     Again  and  again 


JOHN    WESLEY 


he  came  upon  the  same  errand,  stirring  many  a  colony 
with   his   singular  eloquence;  but    Georgia  was  busy 
with  other  things,  and  heeded  him  less  than  the  rest. 
When  the  inevitable  war  came  with  Spain,  in  1739, 
68 


OGLliTHORPE's    EXPEDITION    AGAINST    ST.    AUGUSTINE 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

— inevitable  because  of  trade  rivalries  in  the  West  Indies 
and  in  South  America,  and  because  of  political  rivalry 
at  the  borders  of  Florida,— Oglethorpe  was  almost 
the  first  to  strike.  Admiral  Vernon  had  been  despatch- 


GEORGE   WHITEFIELD 


ed  in  midsummer,  1739,  before  the  declaration  of  war, 
to  destroy  the  Spanish  settlements  and  distress  Spanish 
commerce  in  the  West  Indies;  and  had  promptly  taken 
Porto  Bello  in  November,  scarcely  a  month  after  war 
had  been  formally  declared.  Oglethorpe  struck  next, 
at  St.  Augustine.  It  was  this  he  had  looked  forward 
70 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

to  in  founding  his  colony.  In  May,  1740,  he  moved 
to  the  attack  with  a  mixed  army  of  redskins  and  provin- 
cial militia  numbering  a  little  more  than  two  thousand 
men, — supported  at  sea  by  a  little  fleet  of  six  vessels 
of  war  under  Sir  Yelverton  Peyton.  But  there  had 
been  too  much  delay  in  getting  the  motley  force  to- 
gether. The  Spaniards  had  procursd  reinforcements 
from  Havana;  the  English  ships  found  it  impracti- 
cable to  get  near  enough  to  the  Spanish  works  to  use 
their  guns  with  effect;  Oglethorpe  had  no  proper  siege 
pieces;  and  the  attack  utterly  failed.  It  had  its  effect, 
nevertheless.  For  two  years  the  Spaniards  held  ner- 
vously off,  carefully  on  the  defensive;  and  when  they 
did  in  their  turn  attack,  Oglethorpe  beat  them  hand- 
somely off,  and  more  than  wiped  out  the  disrepute  of 
his  miscarriage  at  St.  Augustine.  In  June.  1742, 
there  came  to  St.  Simon's  Island  a  Spanish  fleet  of 
fifty-one  sail,  nearly  five  thousand  troops  aboard,  and 
Oglethorpe  beat  them  off  with  six  hundred  and  fifty 
men, — working  his  little  forts  like  a  master,  and  his 
single  guard-schooner  and  few  paltry  armed  sloops 
as  if  they  were  a  navy.  Such  a  deliverance,  cried  Mr. 
Whitefield,  could  not  be  paralleled  save  out  of  Old  Testa- 
ment history. 

Meanwhile  Vernon  and  Wentworth  had  met  with 
overwhelming  disaster  at  Cartagena.  With  a  great 
fleet  of  ships  of  the  line  and  a  land  force  of  nine  thou- 
sand men,  they  had  made  their  assault  upon  it  in  March, 
1741;  but  because  Wentworth  bungled  everything  he 
did  with  his  troops  the  attack  miserably  failed.  He 
was  caught  by  the  deadly  wet  season  of  the  tropics; 
disease  reduced  his  army  to  a  wretched  handful;  and 
thousands  of  lives  were  thrown  away  in  his  dismal 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 


disgrace.  Both  New  England  and  Virginia  had  sent 
troops  to  take  their  part  with  that  doomed  army;  and 
the  colonies  knew,  in  great  bitterness,  how  few  came 
home  again.  The  war  had  its  issues  for  them,  they 
knew,  as  well  as  for  the  governments  across  the  water. 
It  meant  one  more  reckoning  with  the  Spaniard  and 


THE   ACTION   AT   CARTAGENA 

the  Frenchman,  their  rivals  for  the  mastery  of  America. 
And  in  1745  New  England  had  a  triumph  of  her  own, 
more  gratifying  even  than  Oglethorpe's  astonishing 
achievement  at  St.  Simon's  Island. 

Only  for  a  few  months  had  England  dealt  with  Spain 

alone  upon  a  private  quarrel.     In  1740  the  male  line 

of  the  great  Austrian  house  of  Hapsburg  had  run  out: 

Maria  Theresa  took  the  throne ;  rival  claimants  disputed 

72 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

her  right  to  the  succession;  and  all  Europe  was  pres- 
ently  plunged  into  the  "War  of  the  Austrian  Succes- 
sion" (1740-1748).  "King  George's  War"  they  called 
it  in  the  colonies,  when  France  and  England  became 
embroiled ;  but  the  name  did  not  make  it  doubtful  what 
interests,  or  what  ambitions,  were  involved;  and  New 
England  struck  her  own  blow  at  the  power  of  France. 
A  force  of  about  four  thousand  men,  levied  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, New  Hampshire,  and  Connecticut,  moved 
in  the  spring  of  1745  against  the  French  port  of  Louis- 
bourg  on  Cape  Breton  Island.  Commodore  Warren, 
the  English  naval  commander  in  the  West  Indies,  fur- 
nished ships  for  their  convoy,  and  himself  supported 
them  in  the  siege;  and  by  the  i6th  of  June  the  place 
had  been  taken.  For  twenty-five  years  the  French 
had  been  slowly  building  its  fortifications,  covering 
with  them  an  area  two  and  a  half  miles  in  circumference. 
The}7  had  made  them,  they  supposed,  impregnable. 
But  the  English  had  struck  quickly,  without  warning, 
and  with  a  skill  and  ardor  which  made  them  well- 
nigh  irresistible;  and  their  triumph  was  complete. 
Provincial  troops  had  taken  the  most  formidable  fortress 
in  America.  William  Pepperrell,  the  gallant  gentle- 
man who  had  led  the  New  En  glanders,  got  a  baronetcy 
for  his  victory.  Warren  was  made  an  admiral. 

The  next  year  an  attack  was  planned  against  the 
French  at  Crown  Point  on  Champlain,  but  nothing 
came  of  it.  The  war  almost  stood  still  thenceforth, 
so  far  as  the  colonies  were  concerned,  till  peace  was 
signed  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  October,  1748.  That  peace 
brought  great  chagrin  to  New  England.  By  its  terms 
Louisbourg  and  all  conquests  everywhere  were  restored. 
The  whole  work  was  to  do  over  again,  as  after  King 
™l  "--'  73 


A    HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

William's  War  and  the  restoration  of  Port  Royal,  which 
Sir  William  Phips  had  been  at  such  pains  to  take.     The 


WILLIAM   PEPPERRELL 


peace  stood,   however,   little  longer  than  that  which 

had  separated  King  William's  War  from  the  War  of 

the   Spanish   Succession.     Seven   years,    and    France 

74 


COMMON  UNDERTAKINGS 

and  England  had  once  more  grappled, — this  time  for 
a  final  settlement.  All  the  seven  years  through  the 
coming  on  of  war  was  plainly  to  be  seen  by  those  who 
knew  where  to  look  for  the  signs  of  the  times.  The 
French  and  English  in  that  brief  interval  were  not 
merely  to  approach;  they  were  to  meet  in  the  western 
valleys,  and  the  first  spark  of  a  war  that  was  to  em- 
broil all  Europe  was  presently  to  flash  out  in  the  still 
forests  beyond  the  far  Alleghanies. 

It  was  on  the  borders  of  Virginia  this  time  that  the 
first  act  of  the  drama  was  to  be  cast.  The  French  de- 
termined both  to  shorten  and  to  close  their  lines  of 
occupation  and  defence  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Gulf.  They  knew  that  they  could 
do  this  only  by  taking  possession  of  the  valley  of  the 
Ohio;  and  the  plan  was  no  sooner  formed  than  it  was 
attempted.  And  yet  to  do  this  was  to  come  closer  than 
ever  to  the  English  and  to  act  under  their  very  eyes. 
A  few  German  families  had  made  their  way  far  to  the 
westward  in  Pennsylvania,  and  hundreds  of  the  in- 
domitable Scots-Irish  had  been  crowding  in  there  for 
now  quite  twenty  years,  passing  on,  many  of  them, 
to  the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Shenandoah  below,  and 
pressing  everywhere  closer  and  closer  to  the  passes 
which  led  down  but  a  little  way  beyond  into  the  valleys 
of  the  Alleghany,  the  Monongahela,  and  the  Ohio.  These 
men,  at  the  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia, 
were  sure  to  observe  what  was  going  forward  in  front 
of  them,  and  to  understand  what  they  saw.  Traders 
crossed  those  mountains  now  by  the  score  from  the 
English  settlements, — three  hundred  in  a  year,  it  was 
said.  They  knew  the  waters  that  ran  to  the  Ohio  quite 
as  well  as  any  Frenchman  did.  Their  canoes  had  fol- 
75 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

lowed  the  turnings  of  the  broad  Ohio  itself,  and  had 
found  it  a  highway  to  the  spreading  Mississippi,  where 
French  boats  floated  slowly  down  from  the  country  of 
the  Illinois,  carrying  their  cargoes  of  meat,  grain,  to- 
bacco, tallow,  hides,  lead,  and  oil  to  the  settlements 
on  the  Gulf.  In  1748,  the  year  of  the  last  peace,  cer- 
tain leading  gentlemen  in  Virginia  had  organized  an 
Ohio  Land  Company, — among  the  rest  Mr.  Augustus 
Washington,  who  had  served  with  Vernon  and  Went- 
worth  at  Cartagena  and  had  lost  his  health  in  the  fatal 
service.  He  had  named  his  estate  by  the  Potomac, 
his  home  of  retirement,  Mount  Vernon,  as  his  tribute 
of  admiration  to  the  gallant  sailor  he  had  learned  to 
love  during  those  fiery  days  in  the  South.  In  1750 
the  English  government  had  granted  to  the  Company 
six  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land  on  the  coveted 
river.  Virginian  officials  themselves  had  not  scrupled 
meanwhile  also  to  issue  grants  and  titles  to  land  beyond 
the  mountains.  The  English  claim  to  the  Ohio  coun- 
try was  unhesitating  and  comprehensive. 

The  English  had  seized  French  traders  there  as 
unlicensed  intruders,  and  the  French  in  their  turn  had 
seized  and  expelled  Englishmen  who  trafficked  there. 
French  and  English  matched  their  wits  very  shrewdly 
to  get  and  keep  the  too  fickle  friendship  of  the  Indians, 
and  so  make  sure  of  their  trade  and  their  peace  with 
them;  and  the  Indians  got  what  they  could  from  them 
both.  It  was  a  sharp  game  for  a  great  advantage,  and 
the  governments  of  the  two  peoples  could  not  long  re- 
frain from  taking  a  hand  in  it. 

The  French  authorities,  it  turned  out,  were,  as  usual, 
the  first  to  act.  In  1752  the  Marquis  Duquesne  be- 
came governor  of  Canada,  an  energetic  soldier  in  his 
76 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

prime ;  and  it  was  he  who  took  the  first  decisive  step. 
In  the  spring  of  1753  he  despatched  a  force  to  Presque 
Isle,  on  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  built  a  log  fort 
there,  and  thence  cut  a  portage  for  his  boats  south- 
ward a  little  way  through  the  forest  to  a  creek  (French 
Creek  the  English  called  it  afterwards)  whose  waters, 
when  at  flood,  would  carry  his  boats  to  the  Alleghanj% 
and  by  that  open  stream  to  the  Ohio.  It  was  the  short 
and  straight  way  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  Gulf.  At  the  creek's  head  he  placed 
another  log  fort  (Le  Boeuf),  and  upon  the  Alleghany 
a  rude  outpost. 

The  same  year  that  saw  the  Marquis  Duquesne  made 
governor  of  Canada  saw  Robert  Dinwiddie  come  out 
as  governor  of  Virginia,  and  no  one  was  likelier  than 
he  to  mark  and  comprehend  the  situation  on  the  border. 
Mr.  Dinwiddie  had  been  bred  in  a  counting  house,  for 
he  was  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  merchant  of  Glasgow; 
but  business  had  long  since  become  for  him  a  matter 
of  government.  He  had  gone  in  his  prime  to  be  col- 
lector of  customs  in  Bermuda;  and  after  serving  in 
that  post  for  eleven  years  he  had  been  made  surveyor 
general  of  customs  in  the  southern  ports  of  America, 
— a  post  in  which  he  served  most  acceptably  for  an- 
other ten  years.  For  twenty  j^ears  he  had  shown  sin- 
gular zeal  and  capacity  in  difficult,  and,  for  many 
men,  demoralizing,  matters  of  administration.  He  had 
lived  in  Virginia  when  surveyor  general  of  customs. 
During  the  twro  years  which  immediately  preceded  his 
appointment  to  the  governorship  of  the  Old  Dominion 
he  had  engaged  in  business  on  his  own  account  in  Lon- 
don, and  had  become  by  purchase  one  of  the  twenty 
stockholders  of  the  Ohio  Land  Company.  He  came  to 
77 


THE 


Numb, 


New-York  Weekly  JOURNAL 


Containing    the   frejbfjl  M<vicety 


^  and 


MUTfDAT  November ja   1733. 


Mr.  Zcnger. 

INccrt  the  following  In  your  next, 
and  you'll  oblige  your  Friend, 

ftra'tempmo*  feliart^  uii  fentiri  <iut 
vela,  &  quf.  fentiat  dicere  licit. 

Tacit. 

THE  Liberty  of  the  Prefs 
is  a  Subjed  of  the  great- 
eft  Importance,   and  in 
which  every  Individual 
is  as  much  concern'd  as 
is  in  any  other  Part  of  Liberty  : 
crefore  it  will  not  be  improper  to 
mmunicate  to  the  Publick  the  Senti- 
•2;ehts  of  a. late  excellent  Writer  upon 
'•his  Point,    fuch  is  the  Elegance  and 
Perfpicuity  of  hfs  Writings,  fuch  the 
inimitable  force  of  his  Reafoning,  that 
it  wUl  be  'difficult  to  fay  any  Thing 
new  that  he  has  not  laid,  or  not  to 
fay  that  much  worfe  which  he  has 
&fd 

There  are  two  Sorts  of  Monarchies, 
an  abfolute  and  a  limited  one.  In  the 
firft,  the  Liberty  of  the  Prefs  can  never 
be  maintained,  it  is  inconfiftent  with 
it  •,  for  what  abfolute  Monarch  would 
fuffer  any  Subjeft.  to  animadvert 
on  his  Adions,  when  it  is  in  his  Pow- 
er to  declare  the  Crime,  and  to  nomi- 
nate the  PunilKment?  -This  would 
make  it  very  dangerous  to  exercifefuch 
a  Liberty.  Befides  the  Object againft 
which  thofe  Pens  muil  be  direded,  is 


their  Sovereign,  the  fcle  fupream  Ma- 
giftrate  •,  for  there  being  no  Law  in 
thofe  Monarchies,  but  the  Will  of  the 
Prince,  it  makes  it  neceflary  for  his 
Minifter^  to  confult  his.  Pleafure,  be- 
fore any  Thing  can  be  undertaken : 
He  is  therefore  properly  chargeable 
with  the  Grievances  of  his  Subjeds, 
and  what  the  Minifter  there  ads  being 
in  Obedience  to  the  Prince,  he  ought 
not  to  incur  the  Hatred  of  the  People  •, 
for  it  would  be  hard  to  impute  that  to 
him  for  a  Crime,  which  is  the  Fruit  of 
his  Allegiance,  and  for  rcfufing  which 
he  might  incuMhe  Penalties  of  Trea- 
fon.  Befides  in  an  abfolute  Monar- 
chy, the  Will  of  the  Prince  being  the 
Law,a  Liberty  of  the  Prefs  to  complain 
of  Grievances  would  be  complaining 
againft  the  Law,  'and  the  Constitution, 
to  which  they  have  fubmitted,  or  have 
been  obliged  to  fubmit;  and  therefore, 
in  one  Senfe,  may  be  faid  to  deferve 
Punifhment,  So  that  under  an  abfo« 
lute  Monarchy,  I  fay,  fuch  a  Liberty 
is  inconfiftent  with  the  Cpnftitution, 
having  no  proper  Subject  in  Politics, 
on  which  it  might  be  exercis'ds  and  if 
exercis'd  would  incur  a  certain  Penalty 
But  in  a  limited  Monarchy,  as  Eng- 
land is,-  our  Laws  are  known,  fixed, 
and  eftabliflied.  They  are  the  ftreip.ht 
Rule  and  fureGuide  to  direft  the  King, 
the  Minifters,  and  other  his  Subjeds : 
And  therefore  an  Offence  againft  the 
Laws  is  tfuch  an  Offence  againft  the 
Conftitution  as  ought  to  receive  a  pro 
per  adequate  Punifnment ;  the  levera. 
Conftil, 


FACSIMILE    OF   THE   NEW    YORK    WEEKLY   JOURNAL 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

his  new  office,  therefore,  acquainted  in  more  than  one 
way  with  the  leading  men  of  the  colony, — especially 
with  Mr.  Augustine  Washington,  now  the  Ohio  Com- 
pany's president,  and  the  little  group  of  influential 
gentlemen, — Lees,  Fairfaxes,  and  the  rest, — often  to  be 
found  gathered  at  Mount  Vernon.  He  came,  therefore, 
with  his  eyes  on  the  western  lands  where  the  company 
and  his  government  were  alike  bound  to  see  to  it  that 
the  French  were  checked. 

He  saw  Duquesne's  movement,  consequently,  at  its 
very  outset,  warned  the  government  at  home,  and  was 
promptly  instructed  to  require  the  French  "peaceably 
to  depart,"  and  if  they  would  not  go  for  the  warning, 
"to  drive  them  off  by  force  of  arms."  He  chose  as  his 
messenger  to  carry  the  summons  Mr.  George  Washing- 
ton, half-brother  to  Mr.  Augustine  Washington,  of  Mount 
Vernon.  George  Washington  was  only  a  lad  of  twenty- 
one;  but  he  had  hardened  already  to  the  work  of  a 
man.  He  had  received  no  schooling  in  England  such 
as  Augustine  had  had,  but  had  gone  from  the  simple 
schools  and  tutors  of  the  Virginian  counts-side  to  serve 
as  a  surveyor  for  Lord  Fairfax  in  the  rough  country 
of  the  Shenandoah, —whither  Fairfax,  heir  of  the  old 
Culpeper  grants,  had  come  to  seek  a  life  away  from 
courts  in  the  picturesque  wilderness  of  America. 
Augustine  Washington  died  the  very  year  Mr.  Din- 
widdie  became  governor,  though  he  was  but  thirty- 
four;  and  he  had  left  George,  lad  though  he  was,  to 
administer  his  estate  and  serve  in  his  stead  as  com- 
mander of  the  militia  of  eleven  counties.  Governor 
Dinwiddie  knew  whom  he  was  choosing  when  he  sent 
this  drilled  and  experienced  youngster,  already  a  fron- 
tiersman, to  bid  the  French  leave  the  Ohio. 
79 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

The  message  was  carried  in  the  dead  of  winter  to 
the  grave  and  courteous  soldier  who  commanded  at 


ROBERT   DINW1DDIE 


Fort  Le  Boeuf;  and  Washington  tried  the  endurance 
even  of  the  veteran  frontiersman  who  accompanied 
him  by  the  forced  marches  he  made  thither  and  back 
again  through  the  dense  and  frosted  woods,  across 
80 


75'       Longitude 


70°    from     Greenwich        65° 


ENGLISH  COLONIES,   1TOO. 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

frozen  streams,  and  through  the  pathless,  storm-beaten 
tangles  of  deep  forests,  where  there  was  hardly  so  much 
as  the  track  of  a  bison  for  their  horses  to  walk  in.  He 
reported  that  the  French  had  received  him  very  gra- 
ciously; but  had  claimed  the  Ohio  as  their  own,  had 
made  no  pretence  that  they  would  abandon  it  because 
the  English  bade  them,  and  clearly  meant  to  establish 
themselves  where  they  were.  Juniors  among  their 
officers  had  told  him  so  very  plainly  as  he  sat  with  them 
after  dinner  in  a  house  which  they  had  seized  from 
an  English  trader. 

He  was  back  at  Williamsburg  with  his  report  by  the 
middle  of  January,  1754;  and  the  next  month  a  small 
body  of  frontiersmen  was  hurried  forward  to  make  a 
clearing  at  the  forks  of  the  Ohio  and  begin  the  construc- 
tion of  fortifications  there  ere  spring  came,  and  the 
French.  The  French  came,  nevertheless,  all  too  soon. 
By  the  lyth  of  April  their  canoes  swarmed  there,  bearing 
five  hundred  men  and  field  ordnance,  and  the  forty  Eng- 
lishmen who  held  the  rude,  unfinished  defences  of  the 
place  had  no  choice  but  to  retire  or  be  blown  into  the 
water.  The  French  knew  the  importance  of  the  place 
as  a  key  to  the  western  lands,  and  they  meant  to  have 
it,  though  they  should  take  it  by  an  open  act  of  war. 
Their  force  there  numbered  fourteen  hundred  before 
summer  came.  They  built  a  veritable  fort,  of  the  rough 
frontier  pattern,  but  strong  enough,  as  it  seemed,  to 
make  the  post  secure,  and  waited  to  see  what  the  Eng- 
lish would  do. 

Dinwiddie  had  acted  with  good  Scots  capacity,  as 
efficiently  and  as  promptly  as  he  could  with  the  power 
he  had.  He  was  obliged  to  deal  with  a  colonial  assem- 
bly,— the  French  governors  were  not;  and  the  Virginian 
n.-6  81 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

burgesses  thought  of  domestic  matters  when  Dinwid- 
die's  thought  was  at  the  frontier.  While  Washington 
was  deep  in  the  forests,  bearing  his  message,  they 
quarrelled  with  the  governor  about  the  new  fees  whi^h 
were  charged  since  his  coming  for  grants  of  the  public 
land;  and  they  refused  him  money  because  he  would 
not  yield  in  the  matter.  But  when  they  knew  how 
things  actually  stood  in  the  West,  and  saw  that  the 
governor  would  levy  troops  for  the  exigency  whether 
they  acted  with  him  or  not,  and  pay  for  them  out  of 
his  own  pocket  if  necessary,  they  voted  supplies. 

There  was  no  highwaj^  of  open  rivers  for  the  Vir- 
ginians, as  for  the  French,  by  which  they  could  descend 
to  the  forks  of  the  Ohio;  and  Virginia  had  no  troops 
ready  as  the  French  had.  Raw  levies  of  volunteers 
had  first  to  be  got  together;  and  when  they  had  been 
hastily  gathered,  clothed,  and  a  little  drilled,  the  first 
use  to  which  it  was  necessary  to  put  them  was  to  cut 
a  rough,  mountainous  road  for  themselves  through 
the  untouched  forests  which  lay  thick  upon  the  tower- 
ing Blue  Ridge.  It  was  painfully  slow  work,  wrought 
at  for  week  after  week,  and  the  French  were  safely 
intrenched  at  their  fort  "Duquesne"  before  the  tired 
Virginian  recruits  had  crossed  the  crest  of  the  moun- 
tains. By  midsummer  they  were  ready  to  strike  and 
drive  the  English  back. 

Blood  had  been  spilled  between  the  rivals  ere  that. 
Washington  was  in  command  of  the  little  force  which 
had  cut  its  way  through  the  forest,  and  he  did  not  un- 
derstand that  he  had  been  sent  into  the  West  this  time 
merely  to  bear  a  message.  When,  therefore,  one  day 
in  May  (28  May,  1754)  he  found  a  party  of  French  lurk- 
ing at  his  front  in  a  thicketed  glade,  he  did  not  hesitate 
82 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

to  lead  an  attacking  party  of  forty  against  them.  The 
young  commander  of  the  French  scouts  was  killed  in 
the  sharp  encounter,  and  his  thirty  men  were  made 
prisoners.  Men  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  knew,  when 
they  heard  that  news,  that  war  had  begun.  Young 
Washington  had  forced  the  hands  of  the  statesmen 


MERCHANTS'  EXCHANGE,  NEW  YORK,  1752-1799 

in  London  and  Paris,  and  all  Europe  presentlj7  took 
fire  from  the  flame  he  had  kindled.  In  July,  Washing- 
ton was  obliged  to  retire.  He  had  only  three  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  all  told,  at  the  rudely  intrenched  camp 
which  he  had  constructed  in  the  open  glade  of  "  Great 
Meadows"  as  the  best  place  to  await  reinforcements; 
and  in  July  the  French  were  upon  him  with  a  force 
of  seven  hundred.  All  day  he  fought  (3  July,  1754), 
and  in  la  drenching  rain,  the  French  firing  from  the 
S3 


A    HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

edges  of  the  woods,  his  own  men  in  their  shallow,  flood- 
ed trenches  in  the  open ;  but  by  night  he  knew  he  must 
give  way.  The  French  offered  him  an  honorable 
capitulation,  and  the  next  day  let  him  go  untouched, 
men  and  arms,  with  such  stores  as  he  could  carry. 

It  was  a  bad  beginning  at  winning  the  West  from 
the  French;  and  all  the  worse  because  it  showed  how 
weak  the  English  were  at  such  work.  The  danger 
was  not  Virginia's  alone;  it  touched  all  the  English 
in  America;  but  the  colonies  could  not  co-operate,  and, 
when  they  acted  at  all,  acted  sluggishly,  as  if  war  would 
wait  for  both  parties  to  get  ready.  The  assemblies 
of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  declared  very  coldly 
that  they  did  not  see  what  right  the  English  crown 
had  to  the  valley  of  the  Ohio.  Ma^land  had  been 
about  to  raise  a  force,  but  had  not  yet  done  so  when 
the  fatal  day  at  Great  Meadows  came.  Two  "inde- 
pendent companies  "  in  the  King's  pay  had  been  ordered 
from  New  York,  and  a  like  company  from  South  Caro- 
lina; and  North  Carolina  had  sent  forward  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men ;  but  only  the  single  company  from 
South  Carolina  had  reached  Great  Meadows,  where 
Washington  was,  before  the  French  were  upon  him. 

Dinwiddie  and  every  other  governor  who  heeded  or 
wrote  of  the  business  told  the  ministers  in  England 
that  they  must  act,  and  send  the  King's  own  troops; 
and  happily  the  ministers  saw  at  last  the  importance 
of  what  should  be  won  or  lost  in  America.  Troops 
were  sent.  For  Europe  it  was  the  beginning  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War  (1755-1763),  which  was  to  see  the 
great  Frederick  of  Prussia  prove  his  mastery  in  the 
field;  which  was  to  spread  from  Europe  to  Asia  and  to 
Africa;  which  was  to  wrest  from  the  French  for  Eng- 
84 


COMMON    UNDERTAKINGS 

land  both  India  and  America.  But  for  the  colonists  in 
America  it  was  only  "the  French  and  Indian  War." 
Their  own  continent  was  the  seat  of  their  thoughts. 

The  beginnings  the  home  government  made  were 
small  and  weak  enough;  but  it  did  at  least  act,  and 
it  was  likely  that,  should  it  keep  long  enough  at  the 
business,  it  would  at  last  learn  and  do  all  that  was 
necessary  to  make  good  its  master  against  a  weaker 
rival.  By  the  20th  of  February,  1755,  transports  were  in 
the  Chesapeake,  bringing  two  regiments  of  the  King's 
regulars,  to  be  sent  against  Duquesne.  The  French, 
too,  were  astir.  Early  in  the  spring  eighteen  French 
ships  of  war  sailed  for  Canada,  carrying  six  battalions 
and  a  new  governor;  and  though  the  English  put  an 
equal  fleet  to  sea  to  intercept  them,  the  Frenchmen  got 
into  the  St.  Lawrence  with  a  loss  of  but  two  of  their  ships, 
which  had  strayed  from  the  fleet  and  been  found  by 
the  English  befogged  and  bewildered  off  the  American 
coast.  The  scene  was  set  for  war  both  north  and  south. 

Major  General  Edward  Braddock  commanded  the 
regiments  sent  to  Virginia,  and  was  commissioned 
to  be  commander-in-chief  in  America.  He  therefore 
called  the  principal  colonial  governors  to  a  conference  at 
Alexandria,  his  headquarters.  By  the  middle  of  April 
five  had  come:  Robert  Dinwiddie,  of  course,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Virginia;  Robert  Hunter  Morris,  whose  thank- 
less task  it  was  to  get  war  votes  out  of  the  Pennsylvanian 
assembly  of  Quakers  and  lethargic  German  farmers; 
Horatio  Sharpe,  the  brave  and  energetic  gentleman 
who  was  governor  of  Maryland ;  James  DeLancey,  the 
people's  governor,  of  New  York;  and  William  Shirley, 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  past  sixty,  but  as  strenuous 
as  Dinwiddie,  and  eager  for  the  field  though  he  had 
85 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

been  bred  a  lawyer, — every  inch  "a  gentleman  and 
politician/'  it  was  said.  It  was  he  who  had  done  most 
to  organize  and  expedite  the  attack  on  Louisbourg 
which  had  succeeded  so  handsomely  ten  years  ago 
(1745).  He  would  at  any  rate  not  fail  for  lack  of  self- 
confidence.  The  conference  planned  an  attack  on 
Niagara,  to  be  led  by  Shirley  himself,  to  cut  the  French 
off  from  Duquesne;  an  attack  on  Crown  Point,  to  be  led 
by  Colonel  William  Johnson,  of  New  York,  whom  the 
Mohawks  would  follow,  to  break  the  hold  of  the  French 
on  Champlain;  an  attack  upon  Beausejour,  in  Acadia, 
under  the  leadership  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Monckton, 
of  the  King's  regulars;  and  a  movement  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Braddock  himself  straight  through 
the  forests  against  Duquesne,  by  the  way  Washington 
had  cut  to  Great  Meadows. 

It  would  have  been  much  better  had  General  Brad- 
dock  chosen  a  route  farther  to  the  north,  where  the 
Pennsylvanian  farmers  of  the  frontier  had  begun  to 
make  roads  and  open  the  forests  for  the  plough;  but 
it  made  little  difference,  after  all,  which  way  he  went: 
his  temper  and  his  training  doomed  him  to  fail.  He 
lacked  neither  courage  nor  capacity,  but  he  sadly  lack- 
ed discretion.  He  meant  to  make  his  campaign  in 
the  wilderness  by  the  rules  of  war  he  had  learned  in 
Europe,  where  the  forests  were  cleared  away  and  no 
subtile  savages  could  dog  or  ambush  an  army ;  and  he 
would  take  no  advice  from  provincials.  Few  but  Wash- 
ington cared  to  volunteer  advice,  for  the  commander- 
in-chief  was  "a  very  Iroquois  in  disposition."  He 
took  two  thousand  men  into  the  wilderness,  with  ar- 
tillery trains  and  baggage:  fourteen  hundred  regulars, 
nearly  five  hundred  Virginians,  horse  and  foot,  two 
87 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE    AMERICAN    PEOPLE 


independent  companies  from  New   York,  and  sailors 
from  the  transports  to  rig  tackle  to  get  his  stores  and 

field-pieces  out  of 
difficulties  in  the 
rough  road.  Wash- 
ington went  with 
the  confident  com- 
mander, by  special 
invitation,  to  act 
as  one  of  his  aides, 
and  was  the  only 
provincial  officer 
whose  advice  was 
given  so  much  as 
consideration  dur- 
ing all  the  weary 
weeks  in  which  the 
little  army  widen- 
ed and  levelled  its 
way  with  axe  and 
spade  through  the 
dense  woods.  And 
then  the  fatal  day 
came  which  filled 
all  the  colonies 
with  dismaj7. 

The  French  com- 
mander    at     Du- 

MAP  OF  BKADDOCK'S  DEFEAT  qnesne      had      no 

such  force  as  Brad- 
dock  was  bringing  against  him.  He  expected  to  be 
obliged  to  retire.  But  on  the  9th  of  July  the  English 
general,  with  his  advance  force  of  twelve  hundred 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

men,  forded  the  shallow  Monongahela  but  eight  miles 
from  Duquesne,  and  striking  into  the  trail  which  led 
to  the  fort,  walked  into  an  ambush.  A  thousand 
men, —  Indians,  chiefly,  and  Canadian  provincials, — 
poured  a  deadly  fire  upon  him  from  the  thick  cover 
of  the  woods  on  either  hand.  Pie  would  not  open  his 
order  and  meet  the  attack  in  forest  fashion,  as  Wash- 
ington begged  him  to  do,  but  kept  his  men  formed  and 
crowded  in  the  open  spaces  of  the  road,  to  be  almost 
annihilated,  and  driven  back,  a  mere  remnant,  in  utter 
rout.  It  was  shameful,  pitiful.  Washington  and  his 
Virginian  rangers  could  with  difficulty  keep  the  rear 
when  the  rout  came,  and  bring  the  stricken  commander 
off,  to  die  in  the  retreat.  Dinwiddie  could  not  persuade 
the  officers  left  in  command  even  to  stay  upon  the  Vir- 
ginian frontier  to  keep  the  border  settlements  safe  against 
the  savages.  It  was  Washington's  impossible  task 
for  the  rest  of  the  war  to  guard  three  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  of  frontier  with  a  handful  of  half -fed  provincial 
militia,  where  the  little  huts  and  tiny  settlements  of 
the  Scots-Irish  immigrants  lay  scattered  far  and  wide 
among  the  foothills  and  valleys  of  the  spreading  moun- 
tain country,  open  everywhere  to  the  swift  and  secret 
onset  of  the  pitiless  redskins. 

Braddock's  papers,  abandoned  in  the  panic  of  the 
rout,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French,  and  made  known 
to  them  all  the  English  plans.  They  were  warned 
what  to  do,  and  did  it  as  promptly  as  possible.  Shirley 
gave  up  the  attempt  to  take  Niagara  before  reaching 
the  lake.  Johnson,  assisted  by  Lyman,  of  Connecticut, 
met  the  French  under  Dieskau  at  Lake  George,  and 
drove  them  back  (September  8,  1755),— the  commander 
and  part  of  the  force  the  French  had  so  hastily  de- 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

spatched  to  America  in  the  spring, — and  Dieskau  him- 
self fell  into  their  hands;  but  they  did  not  follow  up 
their  success  or  shake  the  hold  oi  the  French  upon  the 
line  of  lakes  and  streams  which  ran  from  the  heart 
of  New  York,  like  a  highway,  to  the  valley  of  the  St. 
Lawrence.  The  attack  upon  Beausejour  alone  accom- 
plished what  was  planned.  A  force  of  two  thousand 
New  England  provincials,  under  Colonel  Monckton 
and  Colonel  John  Winslow,  found  the  half-finished 
fortifications  of  the  French  on  Beausejour  hill  in  their 
hands  almost  before  their  siege  was  fairly  placed;  and 
Acadia  was  more  than  ever  secure. 

There  followed  nearly  three  years  of  unbroken  failure 
and  defeat.  In  1756  the  Marquis  Montcalm  succeeded 
Dieskau  as  commander  in  Canada,  and  the  very  year 
of  his  coming  took  and  destroyed  the  English  forts  at 
Oswego.  That  same  year  the  Earl  of  Loudon  came 
over  to  take  charge  of  the  war  for  the  English;  but  he 
did  nothing  effective.  The  government  at  home  sent 
reinforcements,  but  nothing  was  done  with  them  that 
counted  for  success.  "I  dread  to  hear  from  America," 
exclaimed  Pitt.  In  1757  Loudon  withdrew  the  best  of 
his  forces  to  the  north,  to  make  an  attack  on  Louis- 
bourg.  Montcalm  took  advantage  of  the  movement 
to  capture  Fort  William  Hen^,  the  advanced  post  of 
the  English  on  Lake  George;  and  Loudon  failed  in  his 
designs  against  Louisbourg.  Even  the  stout  and 
wily  English  frontiersmen  of  the  northern  border  found 
themselves  for  a  little  while  overmatched.  In  March, 
1758,  Robert  Rogers,  the  doughty  New  Hampshire 
ranger  whose  successful  exploits  of  daring  all  the  north- 
ern border  knew,  was  beaten  by  a  scouting  party  from 
Ticonderoga,  and  barely  came  off  with  his  life.  The 
90 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 


WILLIAM   PITT 


pouring  in  of  troops,  even  of  regulars  from  over  sea, 
seemed  to  count  for  nothing.  General  James  Aber- 
crombie  led  an  army  of  fifteen  thousand  men,  six  thou- 
sand of  them  regulars,  against  Ticonderoga,  where 
Montcalm  had  less  than  four  thousand;  blundered  at 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

every  critical  point  of  the  attack;  lost  two  thousand 
men;  and  retired  almost  as  if  in  flight  (July,  1758). 

But  that  was  the  end  of  failure.  The  year  1757  had 
seen  the  great  Pitt  come  into  control  of  affairs  in  Eng- 
land, and  no  more  incompetent  men  were  chosen  to 


SIGNATURE  OF  JAMES   ABERCROMBIE 

command  in  America.  Pitt  had  been  mistaken  in 
regard  to  Abercrombie,  whom  he  had  retained;  but  he 
made  no  more  mistakes  of  that  kind,  and  a  war  of  failure 
was  transformed  into  a  war  of  victories,  quick  and 
decisive.  Two  more  years,  and  the  French  no  longer 
had  possessions  in  America  that  any  nation  need  covet. 
Pitt  saw  to  it  that  the  forces,  as  well  as  the  talents,  used 
were  adequate.  In  July,  1758,  a  powerful  fleet  under 
Admiral  Boscawen,  and  twelve  thousand  troops  under 
General  Jeffrey  Amherst,  whom  Pitt  had  specially 
chosen  for  the  command,  invested  and  took  Louis- 
bourg.  In  August,  Colonel  John  Bradstreet,  with  three 
thousand  of  Abercrombie's  men,  drove  the  French 
from  Fort  Frontenac  at  Oswego.  In  November  the 
French  abandoned  Fort  Duquesne,  upon  the  approach 
of  a  force  under  General  Forbes  and  Colonel  Washing- 
ton. In  June,  1759,  Johnson  captured  the  French  fort 
at  Niagara  and  cut  the  route  to  the  Ohio,  —  where  Fort 
Duquesne  gave  place  to  Fort  Pitt.  At  midsummer 
General  Amherst,  after  his  thorough  fashion,  led  eleven 
thousand  men  against  Ticonderoga,  and  had  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  the  French  retire  before  him.  He 
cleared  Lake  George  and  captured  and  strengthened 
92 


THE   CAPITULATION   OF   LOUISBOURG 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Crown  Point  upon  Champlain.  The  French  needed 
all  their  power  in  the  north,  for  Pitt  had  sent  Wolfe 
against  Quebec.  They  had  concentrated  quite  four- 
teen thousand  men  in  and  about  the  towering  city  ere 


GENERAL  AMHERSI 


^  JEFFREY  AMHERST 


Wolfe  came  with  scarcely  nine  thousand  (June  21,  1759), 
and  their  fortifications  stood  everywhere  ready  to  de- 
fend the  place.  For  close  upon  three  months  the  Eng- 
lish struck  at  their  strength  in  vain,  first  here  and 
then  there,  in  their  busy  efforts  to  find  a  spot  where 
94 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 


JAMES   WOLFE 


to  get  a  foothold  against  the  massive  stronghold, — 
Montcalm  holding  all  the  while  within  his  defences 
to  tire  them  out;  until  at  last,  upon  a  night  in  September 
which  all  the  world  remembers,  Wolfe  made  his  way  by 
95 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

a  path  which  lay  within  a  deep  ravine  upward  to  the 
heights  of  Abraham,  and  there  lost  his  life  and  won 
Canada  for  England  (September  13,  1759). 

After  that  the  rest  of  the  task  was  simple  enough. 
The  next  year  Montreal  was  yielded  up,  all  Canada 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  English,  and  the  war  was 
practically  over.  There  were  yet  three  more  years  to 
wait  before  formal  peace  should  be  concluded,  because 
the  nations  of  Europe  did  not  decide  their  affairs  by  the 
issue  of  battles  and  sieges  in  America;  but  for  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  the  great  struggle  was  ended.  By  the 
formal  peace,  signed  in  1763,  at  Paris,  England  gained 
Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  Cape  Breton  Island,  and  all  the 
islands  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  the  river  and  har- 
bor of  Mobile,  and  all  the  disputed  lands  of  the  con- 
tinent, north  and  south,  between  the  eastern  moun- 
tain ranges  and  mid-stream  of  the  Mississippi,  except 
New  Orleans,  — besides  the  free  navigation  of  the  great 
river.  From  Spain  she  got  Florida.  France  had  the 
year  before  (1762)  ceded  to  Spain  her  province  of  "Loui- 
siana," the  great  region  bej^ond  the  Mississippi,  whose 
extent  and  boundaries  no  man  could  tell.  She  was 
utterly  stripped  of  her  American  possessions,  and  the 
English  might  look  forward  to  a  new  age  in  their  col- 
onies. 

The  general  authorities  for  the  condition  of  the  country  and  the 
movement  of  affairs  during  this  period  are  the  well  known  histories 
of  Bancroft,  Hildreth,  and  Bryant ;  the  third  volume  of  J.  A.  Doyle's 
English  Colonies  in  America ;  the  third  volume  of  J.  G.  Palfrey's 
Compendious  History  of  New  England ;  W.  B.  Weeden's  Economic 
and  Social  History  of  New  England ;  Mr.  Barrett  Wendell's  Cotton 
Mather ;  Mr.  Eben  G.  Scott's  Development  of  Constitutional  Liberty 
in  the  English  Colonies  of  America;  C.  W.  Baird's  Huguenot 
Emigration  to  America;  James  Russell  Lowell's  New  England 
Two  Centuries  Ago,  in  his  Among  My  Books  ;^Ir.  Brooks  Adams's 
96 


COMMON   UNDERTAKINGS 

Emancipation  of  Massachusetts;  Madame  Knight's  Journal 
(1704);  John  Fontaine's  Diary,  in  the  Memoirs  of  a  Huguenot 
Family ;  and  Benjamin  Franklin's  Autobiography. 

A  more  particular  account  of  many  of  the  transactions  that  fell 
within  the  period  may  be  found  in  Justin  Winsor's  New  England, 
1689-1763,  in  the  fifth  volume  of  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical 
History  of  America ;  Berthold  Fernow's  Middle  Colonies,  Justin 
Winsor's  Maryland  and  Virginia,  and  William  J.  Rivers's  The 
Carolinas,  in  the  same  volume  of  Winsor;  Charles  C.  Smith's 
The  Wars  on  the  Seaboard :  Acadia  and  Cape  Breton,  and  Justin 
Winsor's  Struggle  for  the  Great  Valleys  of  North  America,  in  the 
same  volume  of  Winsor. 

The  chief  authorities  for  the  settlement  and  early  history  of 
Georgia  are  Bancroft,  Hildreth,  and  Bryant ;  Charles  C.  Jones's 
History  of  Georgia  and  English  Colonization  of  Georgia  in  the  fifth 
volume  of  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America  ; 
W.  E.  H.  Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  ; 
Alexander  Hewatt's  Historical  Account  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of 
the  Colonies  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  in  Carroll's  Historical 
Collections  of  South  Carolina ;  the  first  and  second  volumes  of 
Peter  Force's  Tracts  and  Other  Papers  relating  to  the  Colonies  in 
North  America ;  and  the  Colonial  Acts  of  Georgia. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 

No  one  who  marked  how  the  English  colonies  had 
grown,  and  how  the  French  had  lagged  in  the  effectual 
settlement  and  mastery  of  the  regions  they  had  taken, 
could  wonder  that  in  the  final  struggle  for  supremacy 
the  English  had  won  and  the  French  lost  everything 
there  was  to  fight  for.  The  French  had  been  as  long 
on  the  continent  as  the  English,  and  yet  they  did  not 
have  one-tenth  the  strength  of  the  English,  either  in 
population  or  in  wealth,  when  this  war  came.  There 
were  fifty-five  thousand  white  colonists  in  Canada, 
all  told;  and  only  twenty-five  thousand  more  in  all  the 
thin  line  of  posts  and  hamlets  which  stretched  from 
the  St.  Lawrence  through  the  long  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  Gulf, — eighty  thousand  in  all.  In  the 
English  settlements  there  were  more  than  a  million 
colonists  (1,160,000),  not  scattered  in  separated  posts 
set  far  apart  in  the  forested  wilderness,  but  clustered 
thick  in  towns  and  villages,  or  in  neighborly  planta- 
tions, where  the  forest  had  been  cleared  away,  roads 
made,  and  trade  and  peace  established.  The  English 
had  been  seeking,  not  conquest,  but  comfort  and  wealth 
in  busy  centres  and  populous  country-sides,  where  their 
life  now  ran  as  strong  and  as  calm,  almost,  as  if  they 
were  still  in  the  old  lands  of  England  itself.  The  French. 
96 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

on  the  contrary,  were  placed  where  their  government 
wished  them  to  be;  could  hardly  be  said  to  have  formed 
independent  communities  at  all ;  and  were  glad  if  they 
could  so  much  as  eke  out  a  decent  subsistence  from  the 
soil,  or  from  food  brought  by  ship  from  France  over  sea. 
The  English  spread  very  slowly,  considering  how  fast 
they  came,  and  kept  in  some  sort  a  solid  mass;  but 
the  result  was  that  they  thoroughly  possessed  the  coun- 
try as  they  went,  and  made  homes,  working  out  a  life 
of  their  own.  The  French  merely  built  frontier  posts, 
the  while,  on  the  lakes  and  rivers,  as  they  were  bidden 
or  guided  or  exhorted  by  their  governors;  took  up  such 
land  as  was  assigned  them  by  royal  order;  did  their 
daily  stint  of  work,  and  expected  nothing  better.  They 
were,  moreover,  painfully,  perilously  isolated.  Ships 
could  come  from  England  to  any  part  of  the  English 
coasts  of  America  in  five  weeks,  whereas  it  was  a  good 
six  months'  journey  from  France  to  the  frontier  posts 
upon  the  lakes  or  by  the  far-away  western  rivers.  The 
St.  Lawrence  was  closed  for  nearly  half  the  year  by  ice  ; 
and  it  was  a  weary  task  to  get  any  boat  up  the  stream 
of  the  endless  Mississippi  against  its  slow  tide  of  wa- 
ters and  through  the  puzzling,  shifting  channels  of  its 
winding  course. 

The  Marquis  Duquesne  had  called  the  Iroquois  to 
a  council  in  1754,  ere  he  left  his  governorship,  and  had 
commended  his  sovereign's  government  to  them  be- 
cause of  this  very  difference  between  French  and  Eng- 
lish. "Are  you  "ignorant,"  he  said,  "of  the  difference 
between  the  King  of  England  and  the  King  of  France? 
Go,  see  the  forts  that  our  King  has  established,  and 
you  will  see  that  you  can  still  hunt  under  their  very 
walls.  They  have  been  placed  for  your  advantage 
99 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

in  places  which  you  frequent.  The  English,  on  the 
contrary,  are  no  sooner 'in  possession  of  a  place  than 
the  game  is  driven  awa}^.  The  forest  falls  before  them 
as  they  advance,  and  the  soil  is  laid  bare  so  that  you 
can  scarce  find  the  wherewithal  to  erect  a  shelter  for 
the  night."  Perhaps  Duquesne,  being  a  soldier  and 
no  statesman,  did  not  realize  all  that  this  difference 
meant.  The  French  posts,  with  the  forests  close  about 
them,  were  not  self-supporting  communities  such  as 
everywhere  filled  the  English  dominion.  Their  gov- 
ernors were  soldiers,  their  inhabitants  a  garrison,  the 
few  settlers  near  at  hand  traders,  not  husbandmen, 
or  at  best  mere  tenants  of  the  crown  of  France.  No 
doubt  it  was  easier  for  the  savages  to  approach  and 
trade  with  them;  but  it  would  turn  out  to  be  infinitely 
harder  for  the  French  to  keep  them.  Their  occupants 
had  struck  no  deep  rootage  into  the  soil  the3T  were  seated 
upon,  as  the  English  had. 

Englishmen  themselves  had  noted,  with  some  solici- 
tude, how  slow  their  own  progress  was  away  from  the 
sea-coast.  It  was  not  until  1725  that  settlers  in  Massa- 
chusetts had  ventured  to  go  so  far  away  from  the  Bay 
as  the  Berkshire  Hills.  "Our  country  has  now  been 
inhabited  more  than  one  hundred  and  thirty  years," 
exclaimed  Colonel  Byrd,  of  Virginia,  in  1729,  "  and  still 
we  hardly  know  anything  of  the  Appalachian  Moun- 
tains, that  are  nowhere  above  two  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  from  the  sea.  Whereas  the  French,  who  are  later 
comers,  have  ranged  from  Quebec  southward  as  far 
as  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  in  the  Bay  of  Mexico, 
and  to  the  west  almost  as  far  as  California,  which  is 
either  wa}^  above  two  thousand  miles."  But  Colonel 
Byrd  was  thinking  of  discovery,  not  of  settlement; 
100 


THE  PARTING   OF  THE  WAYS 


the  search  for  minerals  and  the  natural  wealth  of  the 
forests,  not  the  search  for  places  to  which  to  extend 
permanent    homes    and    government.     The    difference 
arose    out    of    the 
fundamental     un- 
likeness  of  French 
and  English,   both 
in  life  and  in  gov- 
ernment. 

The  statesmen  of 
both  France  and 
England  accepted 
the  same  theory 
about  the  use  col- 
onies should  be  put 
to,  —  the  doctrine 
and  practice  every- 
where accepted  in 
their  day.  Colonies 
were  to  be  used  to 
enrich  the  countries 
which  possessed 

them.  They  should  send  their  characteristic  native  prod- 
ucts to  the  country  which  had  established  them,  and  for 
the  most  part  to  her  alone,  and  should  take  her  manufact- 
ures in  exchange;  trade  nowhere  else  to  her  disadvan- 
tage; and  do  and  make  nothing  which  could  bring  them 
into  competition  with  her  merchants  and  manufacturers. 
But  England  applied  this  theory  in  one  wray,  France 
in  another.  It  was  provoking  enough  to  the  English 
colonists  in  America  to  have,  in  many  a  petty  matter, 
to  evade  the  exacting  Navigation  Acts,  which  restricted 
their  trade  and  obliged  them  to  buy  manufactured  goods 

10 1 


WILLIAM    BYRD 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

at  prices  fixed  by  the  English  merchants.  It  a  little 
cramped  and  iiritated  them  that  they  were  forbidden  to 
manufacture  now  this  and  now  that,  though  the  material 
lay  at  their  very  doors,  because  English  manufacturers 
wished  their  competition  shut  out.  Restriction  was  add- 
ed to  restriction.  In  1706,  naval  stores  and  rice,  which 
the  Carolinas  were  learning  to  produce  to  their  increas- 
ing profit,  were  added  to  the  list  of  products  which  must 
be  sent  to  England  only;  and  in  1722  copper  and  furs. 
In  1732  the  manufacture  of  beaver  hats  was  forbidden, 
and  in  1750  the  maintenance  of  iron  furnaces  or  slit 
mills.  Rut  there  was  always  an  effort  made  at  recip- 
rocal advantage.  Though  the  colonies  were  forbidden 
to  manufacture  their  iron  ores,  their  bar  and  pig  iron 
was  admitted  into  England  free  of  duty,  and  Swedish 
iron,  which  might  have  undersold  it,  was  held  off  by 
a  heavy  tariff,  to  the  manifest  advantage  of  Maryland 
and  Virginia.  Though  the  rice  of  the  Carolinas  for 
a  time  got  admission  to  market  only  through  the  Eng- 
lish middlemen,  their  naval  stores  were  exported  under 
a  heavy  bounty;  and  in  1730,  when  the  restriction  laid 
on  the  rice  trade  pinched  too  shrewdly,  it  was  removed 
with  regard  to  Portugal,  the  chief  European  market 
open  to  it.  Parliament  had  generally  an  eye  to  build- 
ing up  the  trade  of  the  colonies  as  well  as  to  control- 
ling it. 

The  home  government,  moreover,  though  it  dili- 
gently imposed  restrictions,  wras  by  no  means  as  diligent 
in  enforcing  them.  An  ill-advised  statute  of  1733  laid 
prohibitory  duties  on  the  importation  of  sugar,  molasses, 
and  rum  out  of  the  French  West  Indies,  in  the  hope 
that  the  sales  of  sugar  and  molasses  in  the  islands 
owned  by  England  might  be  increased.  To  enforce 
102 


A  HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

the  act  would  have  been  to  hazard  the  utter  commercial 
ruin  of  New  England.  Out  of  the  cheap  molasses  of  the 
French  islands  she  made  the  rum  which  was  a  chief 
source  of  her  wealth, — the  rum  with  which  she  bought 
slaves  for  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolinas,  and 
paid  her  balances  to  the  English  merchants.  But  no 
serious  attempt  was  made  to  enforce  it.  Customs  of- 
ficers and  merchants  agreed  in  ignoring  it,  and  offi- 
cers of  the  crown  shut  their  eyes  to  the  trade  which  it 
forbade.  Smuggling  upon  that  long  coast  was  a  simple 
matter,  and  even  at  the  chief  ports  only  a  little  circum- 
spection was  needed  about  cargoes  out  of  the  Indies. 

Moreover,  the  men  who  governed  in  England  con- 
tented themselves  with  general  restrictions  and  did 
not  go  on  to  manage  the  very  lives  of  the  colonists  in 
the  colonies  themselves.  That  was  what  the  French 
did.  They  built  their  colonies  up  by  roj^al  order;  sent 
emigrants  out  as  they  sent  troops,  at  the  King's  ex- 
pense and  by  the  King's  direction ;  could  get  only  men 
to  go,  therefore,  for  the  most  part,  and  very  few  women 
or  families.  For  the  English  there  was  nothing  of 
the  sort,  alter  the  first.  Rich  men  or  great  mercantile 
companies  might  help  emigrants  with  money  or  sup- 
plies or  free  gifts  of  land  in  order  to  fill  up  the  colonies 
which  the  crown  had  given  them  the  right  to  establish 
and  govern;  but  only  those  went  out  who  volunteered. 
Emigrants  went,  moreover,  in  families,  after  the  first 
years  were  passed  and  the  colonies  fairly  started,  if 
not  at  the  very  outset  of  the  enterprise,— in  associated 
groups,  congregations,  and  small  volunteer  communi- 
ties. When  they  reached  the  appointed  place  of  settle- 
ment they  were  left  to  shift  for  themselves,  as  they  had 
expected,  exactlj7  as  they  would  have  been  at  home; 
'104 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

and  they  insisted  upon  having  the  same  rights  and 
freedom  they  would  have  had  there.  They  were  making 
homes,  without  assistance  or  favor,  and  for  their  own 
use  and  benefit. 

It  was  inevitable  in  the  circumstances  that  their 
colonial  governments  should  be  like  themselves,  home- 
made and  free  from  control  in  the  management  of  what 
chiefly  concerned  their  own  lives.  They  were  just  as 
hard  to  supervise  and  regulate  when  the  settlements 
were  small  as  when  they  grew  large  and  populous, — 
a  little  harder,  indeed,  because  the  colonists  were  the 
more  anxious  then  about  how  the  new  life  they  were 
beginning  was  to  go,  and  the  less  sure  of  their  power 
or  influence  to  resist  the  efforts  of  the  crown  to  manage 
and  interfere  with  them.  By  the  time  the  French  war 
came  there  was  no  mistaking  the  fact  that  the  English 
colonies  had  grown  to  be  miniature  states,  proud,  hard- 
fibred,  independent  in  temper,  practised  in  affairs. 
They  had,  as  Edmund  Burke  said,  "formed  within 
themselves,  either  by  royal  instruction  or  royal  charter, 
assemblies  so  exceedingly  resembling  a  parliament, 
in  all  their  forms,  functions,  and  powers,  that  it  was 
impossible  they  should  not  imbibe  some  opinion  of  a 
similar  authority."  At  first,  no  doubt,  their  assemblies 
had  been  intended  to  be  little  more  than  the  managing 
bodies  of  corporations.  "But  nothing  in  progression 
can  rest  on  its  original  plan.  We  may  as  well  think  of 
rocking  a  grown  man  in  the  cradle  of  an  infant.  There- 
fore, as  the  colonies  prospered  and  increased  to  a  nu- 
merous and  mighty  people,  spreading  over  a  very  great 
tract  of  the  globe,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  at- 
tribute to  assemblies  so  respectable  in  their  formal  con- 
stitution some  part  of  the  dignity  of  the  great  nations 
VOL.  ii.— 9  105 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 


which  they  represented."     The}^  "made  acts  of  all  sorts 
and  in  all  cases  whatsoever.     They  levied  money  upon 


EDMUND    BURKE 


regular  grants  to  the  crown,  following  all  the  rules  and 
principles  of  a  parliament,  to  which  they  approached 
every  day  more  and  more  nearly."  And  Burke  saw 
how  inevitable,  as  well  as  how  natural,  the  whole  growth 
106 


THE   PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 

had  been.  "Things  could  not  be  otherwise/'  he  said; 
"  English  colonies  must  be  had  on  these  terms,  or  not 
had  at  all." 

They  had  used  their  governments  for  their  own  pur- 
poses, and  rather  like  independent  states  than  like  de- 
pendent communities.  In  every  colony  the  chief  point 
of  conflict  between  governor  and  assembly,  whether  in 
the  proprietary  or  in  the  crown  colonies,  had  always 
been  connected  with  the  subject  of  salaries.  Again 
and  again  governors  had  been  instructed  to  insist  upon 
an  adequate  income,  charged  permanently  upon  some 
regular  source  of  public  revenue ;  but  again  and  again, 
as  often  as  made,  their  demand  had  been  refused.  Thej7 
could  get  only  annual  grants,  which  kept  all  officers 
of  the  crown  dependent  upon  the  people's  assemblies 
for  maintenance  while  in  office.  There  had  long  been 
signs  that  the  ministers  of  the  King  and  the  proprietors 
at  home  were  tired  of  the  contest,  and  meant,  for  the 
mere  sake  of  peace,  to  let  the  colonial  assemblies  alone, 
to  rule,  as  Parliament  ruled,  by  keeping  control  of  the 
moneys  spent  upon  their  own  governments. 

There  was,  too,  more  and  more  money  in  the  colonies 
as  the  years  went  by.  New  England,  where,  except 
in  the  rich  valley  of  the  Connecticut,  the  soil  yielded 
little  beyond  the  bare  necessaries  of  life,  led  the  rest 
of  the  colonies  in  the  variety  of  her  industries.  Though 
parliamentary  statutes  forbade  the  making  of  woollen 
goods  or  hats  or  steel  for  export,  the  colonists  were  free 
to  make  anything  they  might  need  for  use  or  sale  within 
a  single  colony  or  in  their  own  homes;  and  the  thrifty 
New  England  farmers  and  villagers  made  most  of  their 
own  furniture,  tools,  and  household  utensils,  while 
their  women  or  the  village  weavers  wove  the  linen  and 
107 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

woollen  stuffs  of  which  their  clothes  were  made.  They 
lived  upon  their  own  resources  as  no  other  colonists 
did.  And  their  trade  kept  six  hundred  vessels  busy 
plying  to  and  fro  to  English  and  foreign  ports.  Al- 
most every  sea-coast  hamlet  was  a  port  and  maintained 
its  little  fleet.  A  thousand  vessels,  big  and  little,  went 
every  year  to  the  fisheries,  or  up  and  down  the  coasts 
carrying  the  trade  between  colony  and  colony.  A 
great  many  of  these  vessels  the  colonists  had  built 
themselves,  out  of  the  splendid  timber  which  stood 
almost  everywhere  at  hand  in  their  forests;  and  every 
one  knew  who  knew  anything  at  all  about  New  Eng- 
land that  her  seamen  were  as  daring,  shrewd,  and 
hard}7  as  those  bred  in  past  generations  in  the  Devon- 
shire ports  of  old  England.  Their  boats  flocked  by 
the  hundreds  every  year  to  the  misty,  perilous  banks 
of  Newfoundland,  where  the  cod  were  to  be  caught. 
They  beat  up  and  down  the  long  seas  in  search  of  the 
whale  all  the  way  from  "  the  frozen  recesses  of  Hudson's 
Bay  and  Da  vis's  Straits "  to  the  coasts  of  Africa  and 
Brazil,  far  in  the  south.  "  Neither  the  perseverance  of 
Holland,  nor  the  activity  of  France,  nor  the  dexterous 
and  firm  sagacity  of  English  enterprise,"  exclaimed 
Burke,  "ever  carried  this  most  perilous  mode  of  hardy 
industry  to  the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  pushed  by 
this  recent  people, — a  people  who  are  still,  as  it  were, 
but  in  the  gristle,  and  not  yet  hardened  into  the  bone 
of  manhood." 

Massachusetts  had  been  known,  while  peace  held 
and  men  breathed  freely,  between  Queen  Anne's  and 
King  George's  wars,  to  complete  one  hundred  and  fifty 
ships  in  a  single  year,  every  town  upon  the  coast  and 
even  little  villages  far  within  the  rivers  launching  vessels 
108 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE  WAYS 

from  busy  shipyards.  Ship  building  became  New  Eng- 
land's chief  industry;  and  in  1724  the  master  build- 
ers of  the  Thames  prayed  Parliament  for  protection 
against  the  competition  of  the  colonies.  The  annual 
catch  of  whale  and  cod  by  the  New  Englanders  was 
worth  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds  sterling; 
and,  besides  fish  and  fish-oil,  the}^  shipped  their  fine  tim- 
ber, and  not  a  little  hay  and  grain  even,  across  the  sea 


VIEW  OF  THE   BUILDINGS   BELONGING  TO   HARVARD  COLLEGE,  CAMBRIDGE, 
NEW   ENGLAND,   1726 

or  to  the  other  colonies.  Everywhere  in  America  the  for- 
ests yielded  splendid  timber,  as  his  Majesty's  ministers 
well  knew:  for  they  sent  into  the  northern  forests  of 
pine  and  had  the  tallest,  straightest  trees  there  marked 
with  the  royal  arms,  as  a  notice  that  they  were  reserved 
to  be  used  as  masts  for  his  Majesty's  war-ships, — as 
if  the  King  had  a  right  to  take  what  he  would. 

"  New  England  improved  much  faster  than  Virginia," 
Colonel  Etyrd  admitted ;   and  yet  Virginia  had  her  own 
rich  trade,  of  which  tobacco  was  the  chief  staple;  and 
109 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

all  the  colonies  busied  themselves  as  they  could,  and 
visibly  grew  richer  year  by  year.  The  middle  colonies 
were  scarcely  less  industrious  than  those  of  the  bleaker 
north,  and  prospered  even  more  readily  with  their  kind- 
lier climate  and  their  richer  soil.  Pennsylvania,  with 
her  two  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  colonists,  with 
her  thrifty  mixture  of  Germans,  Quakers,  Scots,  and 
Scots-Irishmen,  needed  a  fleet  of  four  hundred  sail  to 
carry  each  season's  spare  produce  from  the  docks  at 
Philadelphia;  and  New  York  had  her  separate  fleet 
of  close  upon  two  hundred  sail. 

England  depended  upon  the  colonies  for  much  of 
the  naval  stores,  of  the  potash,  and  of  the  pearlash 
which  she  needed  ever}7  year.  Mines  of  iron  and  of 
copper  had  been  opened  both  in  the  middle  colonies 
and  in  the  south.  The  colonists  made  their  own  brick 
for  building,  and  their  own  paper  and  glass,  as  well 
as  their  own  coarse  stuffs  for  clothing,  and  many  of 
their  own  hats  of  beaverskin.  Substantial  houses 
and  fine,  sightly  streets  sprang  up  in  the  towns  which 
stood  at  the  chief  seaports ;  and  in  the  country  spacious 
country  seats,  solidly  built,  roomy,  full  of  the  simpler 
comforts  of  gentlefolk.  The  ships  which  took  hides 
and  fish  and  provisions  to  the  West  Indies  brought 
sugar  and  molasses  and  wine  and  many  a  delicacy 
back  upon  their  return,  and  the  colonists  ate  and  drank 
and  bore  themselves  like  other  well-to-do  citizens  the 
world  over.  They  were  eager  always  to  know  what 
the  London  fashions  were ;  there  was  as  much  etiquette 
to  be  observed  upon  quiet  plantations  in  Virginia  as 
in  English  drawing  rooms.  It  was,  indeed,  touched 
with  a  certain  beauty  of  its  own,  because  of  the  provin- 
cial simplicity  and  frank  neighborliness  which  went 
no 


THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 

along  with  it;  but  it  was  grave  and  punctilious,  and 
intended  to  be  like  London  manners.  There  was  as 
much  formality  and  gayety  "  in  the  season  "  at  Williams- 
burg,  Virginia's  village  capital,  as  in  Philadelphia,  the 
biggest,  wealthiest,  most  stately  town  in  the  colonies. 

There  were  many  ways  in  which  the  colonies  finished 
and  filled  out  their  lives  which  showed  that  they  re- 


NASSAU   HALL,   PRINCETON   COLLEGE,   1760 

garded  themselves  as  in  a  sense  independent  communi- 
ties and  meant  to  provide  for  themselves  everything 
they  needed  for  their  life  alone  on  a  separate  continent. 
They  had  no  thought  of  actually  breaking  away  from 
their  allegiance  to  the  home  government  over  sea;  but 
no  man  could  possibly  overlook  the  three  thousand 
miles  of  water  that  stretched  between  England  and 
America.  At  that  immense  distance  they  were  obliged 
in  great  measure  to  look  out  for  themselves  and  con- 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

trive  their  own  ways  of  sustenance  and  development, 
and  their  own  way  of  culture.  Before  the  French  war 
began,  two  more  colleges,  in  addition  to  Harvard  in 
Massachusetts  and  William  and  Mary  in  Virginia,  had 
been  established  to  provide  the  higher  sort  of  training 
for  youths  who  were  to  enter  the  learned  professions. 
Besides  Yale,  the  College  of  New  Jersey  had  been  found- 
ed. At  first  set  up  in  1746  as  a  collegiate  school,  at 


KING'S   COLLEGE,   NEW    YORK,    1758 

Elizabethtown,  it  was  in  1756  given  a  permanent  home 
and  built  up  into  a  notable  training  place  for  youth 
at  Princeton.  In  1754,  the  year  Washington  attacked 
the  French  in  the  western  forests,  King's  College  was 
added  to  the  growing  list,  in  New  York,  by  royal  charter. 
Ten  years  later  (1764),  upon  the  very  morrow  of  the  sign- 
ing of  peace,  certain  public-spirited  men  of  the  Baptist 
communion  followed  suit  in  Rhode  Island  by  founding 
the  school  which  was  afterwards  to  be  called  Brown 
University.  Here  were  six  colleges  for  this  new  Eng- 
lish nation  at  the  west  of  the  Atlantic.  Many  wealthy 
112 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

colonists,  particularly  in  the  far  south,  continued  to 
send  their  sons  to  the  old  country  to  take  their  learn- 
ing from  the  immemorial  sources  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge; but  more  and  more  the  colonies  provided  learn- 
ing for  themselves. 
Their  growing  and  expanding  life,  moreover,  develop- 


THE   BIRTHPLACE   OF   BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN,   MILK   STREET,   BOSTON 

ed  in  them  the  sense  of  neighborhood  to  one  another, 
the  consciousness  of  common  interests,  and  the  feeling 
that  they  ought  in  many  things  to  cooperate.  In 
1754,  while  the  first  sharp  note  of  war  was  ringing  from 
the  Alleghanies,  a  conference  with  the  Six  Nations 
was  held  at  Albany,  which,  besides  dealing  with  the 
redmen,  and  binding  them  once  more  to  be  friends  and 
allies  of  the  English  against  the  French,  considered 

u.-8  113 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

nothing  less  than  a  plan  of  union  for  the  colonies.  This 
was  the  fourth  time  that  the  representatives  of  several 
colonies  at  once  had  come  together  at  Albany  to  con- 
fer with  the  Iroquois.  The  first  conference  had  taken 
place  there  in  1689,  the  year  King  William's  War  began. 
Albany  lay  nearest  the  country  of  the  Iroquois.  It 
was  necessary  when  war  was  afoot  to  make  sure  that 
the  redskins  should  side  with  the  English,  and  not 
with  the  French ;  and  that  was  now  for  the  fourth  time, 
in  1754,  more  critically  important  than  ever.  The 
home  government  had  directed  that  the  conference  be 
held,  before  they  knew  what  Washington  had  done. 
It  was  the  ministers  in  London,  too,  who  had  directed 
that  a  plan  of  union  be  considered,  in  order  that  the 
colonies  might  act  in  concert  in  the  coming  struggle 
with  the  French,  and  if  possible  under  a  single  govern- 
ment even.  Seven  colonies  were  represented  at  the 
conference.  Twenty-five  delegates  were  there  to  take 
part  in  the  business ;  and  there  was  no  difficulty  about 
securing  their  almost  unanimous  assent  to  a  plan  of 
union.  They  adopted  the  plan  which  Mr.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  one  of  Pennsylvania's  delegates,  had  drawn 
up  as  he  made  the  long  journey  from  Philadelphia. 

Mr.  Franklin  had  led  a  very  notable  life  during  the 
thirty  eventful  years  which  had  gone  by  since  he  made 
his  way,  a  mere  lad,  from  Boston  to  Philadelphia  to 
earn  his  livelihood  as  a  journeyman  printer;  and  how 
shrewd  a  knowledge  he  had  gained  of  the  practical 
affairs  of  the  world  anybody  could  see  for  himself  who 
would  read  the  homely- wise  maxims  he  had  been  putting 
forth  these  twenty-two  years  in  his  "  Poor  Richard's " 
Almanacs,  begun  in  1732.  The  plan  of  union  he  sug- 
gested at  Albany  was,  that  the  colonies  should  submit 
114 


THE   PARTING   OF  THE  WAYS 

to  have  their  common  interests  cared  for  by  a  congress 
of  delegates  chosen  by  their  several  assemblies,  and  a 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN 


"  president  general "  appointed  and  paid  by  the  crown ; 
giving  to  the  congress  a  considerable  power  of  actual 
law-making  and  to  the  president  general  the  right  to 
veto  its  acts,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  ministers  at 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

home.  To  all  the  delegates  at  Albany  except  those 
from  Connecticut  the  plan  seemed  suitable  and  excel- 
lent ;  but  the  ministers  at  home  rejected  it  because  they 
thought  it  gave  too  much  power  to  the  proposed  con- 
gress, and  the  colonial  assemblies  rejected  it  because 
they  thought  it  gave  too  much  power  to  the  president 
general.  Mr.  Franklin  said  that  the  fact  that  neither 
the  assemblies  nor  the  King's  ministers  liked  the  plan 
made  him  suspect  that  it  must  be,  after  all,  an  excel- 
lent half-way  measure,  the  "true  medium"  between 
extremes,  effecting  a  particularly  fair  and  equal  distri- 
bution of  power. 

Then  the  war  came,  and  made  many  things  plain. 
The  colonies  did  not  cooperate.  They  contributed 
troops,  watched  their  own  frontiers  as  they  could  against 
the  redskins,  and  freely  spent  both  blood  and  money  in 
the  great  struggle;  but  when  it  was  all  over,  and  the 
French  dominion  swept  from  the  continent,  it  was  plain 
that  it  had  not  been  the  power  of  the  colonies  but  the 
power  of  England  and  the  genius  of  the  great  Pitt  that 
had  won  in  the  critical  contest.  France  could  send 
few  reinforcements  to  Canada  because  England's  ships 
commanded  the  sea.  The  stout  Canadians  had  had 
to  stand  out  for  themselves  unaided,  with  such  troops 
as  were  already  in  the  colony.  In  1759,  tne  Y^1"  Wolfe 
took  Quebec,  there  were  more  soldiers  in  the  English 
colonies  threatening  the  St.  Lawrence  than  there  were 
men  capable  of  bearing  arms  in  all  Canada, — and 
quite  half  of  them  wrere  regulars,  not  provincials.  Pitt 
saw  to  it  that  enough  troops  and  supplies  were  sent 
to  America  to  insure  success,  and  that  men  capable 
of  victory  and  of  efficient  management  even  in  the 
forested  wilderness  were  put  in  command  of  affairs 
116 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

in  the  field.     He  did  not  depend  upon  the  colonies  to 
do  what  he  knew  they  had  no  plan  or  organization  for 


SEPTEMBER.      IX  Montb. 

In  vain  it  is  to  plant,  in  vain  to  fow, 

n  vain  to  harrow  well  the  levell'd  Plain, 

If  thou  doft  not  command  the  Seed  to  grow, 

And  give  Increafc  unto  my  bury'd  Grain. 

For  not  a  fmgle  Corn  will  rulh  to  Birth, 

Of  all  that  I  Ve  intruded  to  the  Earth, 

If  thou  doft  not  enjoin  the  Shoot  to  fpririg. 

And  the  young  Blade  to  full  Perfection  bring                 I 

(Remark,  day  s,c^c.|Orif|Ofet|  Dpi  [  Afpefts,  &V. 

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I9. 

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Colour  of 

A  PAGE  OF  "POOR  RICHARD'S"  ALMANAC 

doing,  but  set  himself  to  redress  the  balance  of  power 
in  Europe  by  decisive  victories  which  should  make 
England  indisputable  mistress  of  America.  "No  man 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

ever  entered  Mr.  Pitt's  closet  who  did  not  find  himself 
braver  when  he  came  out  than  when  he  \vent  in,"  said 
a  soldier  who  had  held  conference  with  him  and  served 
him;  and  it  was  his  statesmanship  and  his  use  of  Eng- 
lish arms  that  had  made  England's  dominion  complete 
and  England's  colonies  safe  in  America. 

English  fleets  and  armies  had  not  been  sent  to  Amer- 
ica, however,  and  equipped  for  warfare  there,  sustained 
in  war  season  and  out  of  it,  without  enormous  expense ; 
and  that  expense,  wrhich  had  set  the  colonies  free  to 
live  without  dread  of  danger  or  of  confinement  at  any 
border,  England  had  borne.  It  had  been  part  of  Mr. 
Franklin's  plan  of  union,  proposed  at  Albany,  that  the 
congress  of  the  colonies  should  sustain  the  armies  used 
in  their  defence  and  pay  for  them  by  taxes  levied  in 
America;  but  that  plan  had  been  rejected,  and  this 
war  for  the  ousting  of  the  French  had  been  fought  at 
England's  cost, — much  as  the  colonies  had  given  of 
their  own  blood,  and  of  their  own  substance  for  the 
equipment  of  their  provincial  levies,  and  much  as  they 
had  suffered  in  all  the  obscure  and  painful  fighting  to 
protect  their  frontiers  against  the  redskins,  far  away 
from  set  fields  of  battle.  They  had  done  more,  indeed, 
than  pay  the  costs  which  inevitably  fell  to  them.  They 
had  "raised,  paid,  and  clothed  twenty-five  thousand 
men, — a  number,"  if  Mr.  Franklin  was  right,  "equal 
to  those  sent  from  Great  Britain  and  far  beyond  their 
proportion.  They  went  deeply  in  debt  in  doing  this; 
and  all  their  estates  and  taxes  are  mortgaged  for  many 
years  to  come  in  discharging  that  debt."  Parliament 
had  itself  acknowledged  their  loyal  liberality  and  self- 
sacrifice,  and  had  even  voted  them  £200,000  a  year  for 
five  years,  when  the  war  was  over,  by  way  of  just  re- 
118 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

imbursement.  But,  though  they  had  made  sacrifices, 
they  had,  of  course,  not  shared  with  the  royal  treasury 
the  chief  outlays  of  the  war.  Colonial  governors,  view- 
ing affairs  as  representatives  of  the  government  at 
home,  had  again  and  again  urged  the  ministers  in  Lon- 
don to  tax  the  colonies,  by  act  of  Parliament,  for  means 
to  pay  for  frontier  forts,  armies  of  defence,  and  all  the 
business  of  imperial  administration  in  America.  But  the 
ministers  had  hitherto  known  something  of  the  temper 
of  the  colonists  in  such  matters  and  had  been  too  wise 
to  attempt  anything  of  the  kind.  Sir  George  Keith, 
who  had  been  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  had  sug- 
gested to  Sir  Robert  Walpole  that  he  should  raise  rev- 
enue in  the  colonies;  but  that  shrewd  politician  and 
man  of  affairs  had  flatly  declined.  "What,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "I  have  old  England  against  me,  and  do  you 
think  I  will  have  New  England  likewise?"  Chatham 
had  held  the  same  tone.  What  English  armies  did  in 
America  was  part  of  England's  struggle  for  empire, 
for  a  leading  station  in  power  and  riches  in  the  world, 
and  England  should  pay  for  it.  The  desire  of  the 
colonies  to  control  their  own  direct  taxes  should  be 
respected.  English  statesmen,  so  far,  had  seen  the 
matter  very  much  as  observant  Colonel  Spotswood  had 
seen  it  thirty  odd  years  ago.  If  the  ministers  should 
direct  moneys  to  be  paid  by  act  of  Parliament,  he 
said,  "  they  would  find  it  no  easy  matter  to  put  such 
an  act  into  execution";  and  he  deemed  it  "against 
the  right  of  Englishmen/'  besides,  "to  be  taxed,  but 
by  their  representatives/'  —  new  colonist  though  he 
was,  and  only  the  other  day  a  governor  of  the  crown 
in  Virginia,  the  oldest  and  most  loyal  of  the  colonies. 
It  was  now  more  than  forty  years  since  Colonel  Spots- 
120 


THE   PARTING   OF  THE  WAYS 

wood,  in  the  days  of  his  governorship,  had  ridden  to 
the  far  summit  of  the  Alleghanies  and  looked  down 


MRS.  BENEDICT  ARNOLD  AND  CHILD 

their  western  slopes  towards  the  regions  where  Eng- 
land and  France  were  to  meet.  Since  that  day  he  had 
served  the  crown  very  quietly  as  postmaster  general 
for  the  colonies.  At  last  he  had  died  (1740)  when  on 
121 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

the  eve  of  sailing  with  Virginian  troops  for  Cartagena, 
about  to  return  at  the  very  end  of  his  days  to  his  old 
calling  of  arms.  He  had  lived  thirty  years  in  Vir- 
ginia, all  told,  and  spoke  out  of  abundant  knowledge 
when  he  expressed  a  judgment  as  to  what  the  ministers 
would  find  it  hard  to  do  in  the  colonies.  He  knew,  as 
every  man  did  who  had  had  anything  to  do  with  the 
service  of  the  crown  in  America,  how  stubbornly  the 
colonists  had  resisted  every  attempt  to  unite  their  gov- 
ernments under  a  single  governor  or  any  single  system, 
and  how  determined  they  had  been  to  keep  their  gov- 
ernments in  their  own  hands,  notwithstanding  they 
must  have  seen,  as  everybody  else  saw,  the  manifest 
advantage  of  union  and  a  common  organization  in 
the  face  of  England's  rivals  in  America,  north  and 
south.  The  King's  object  in  seeking  to  consolidate 
the  more  northern  colonies  under  Sir  Edmund  Andros, 
whom  New  England  had  so  hated,  was  not  to  attack 
their  liberties,  but  "to  weld  them  into  one  strongly 
governed  state,"  such  as  should  be  able  to  present  a 
firm  front  to  the  encroachments  of  the  French, — a  states- 
manlike object,  which  no  man  who  wished  to  serve  the 
interests  of  English  empire  could  reasonably  criticise. 
But  the  colonists  had  not  cared  to  regard  their  little 
commonwealths  as  pieces  of  an  empire.  They  re- 
garded them  simply  as  their  own  homes  and  seats  of 
self-government;  and  they  feared  to  have  them  swal- 
lowed up  in  any  scheme  of  consolidation,  whatever 
its  object.  The  French  war,  consequently,  had  beei 
fought  by  the  government  in  England,  and  not  by  any 
government  in  America. 

Though  a  few  statesmen  like  Walpole  had  had  the 
sagacity  to  divine  it.  and  all  leaders  in  party  counsels 
122 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 


had  instinctively 
feared  it,  very  few 
public  men  in  Eng- 
land understood 
the  temper  or  the 
unchangeable  res- 
olution of  the  col- 
onies in  such  mat- 
ters. Pitt  under- 
stood it,  but  now 
that  the  war  was 
over  he  was  no 
longer  suffered  to 
be  master  in  af- 
fairs. Burke  un- 
derstood it,  but 
few  heeded  what 
he  said.  Such 
men  knew  by  in- 
stant sympathy 
that  this  seeming- 
ly unreasonable 
temper  of  the  col- 
onists in  great  af- 
fairs was  nothing 
else  than  the  com- 
mon English  spirit 
of  liberty.  The 
colonists  were  sim- 
ply refusing,  as 
all  Englishmen 
would  have  refused,  to  be  directly  ruled  in  their  own 
affairs,  or  directly  taxed  for  any  purpose  whatever, 
123 


FRANKLIN'S  OLD  BOOK-SHOP,  NEXT  TO  CHRIST'S 

CHURCH,  PHILADELPHIA 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

by  a  government  which  they  themselves  had  no  part 
in  conducting;  and,  whether  reasonable  or  unreason- 
able, so  long  as  they  remained  Englishmen  it  was  use- 
less to  try  to  argue  them  out  of  that  refusal.  "An 
Englishman/'  cried  Burke,  "is  the  unfittest  person 
on  earth  to  argue  another  Englishman  into  slavery"; 
and  he  knew  that  to  an  Englishman  it  would  seem 
nothing  less  than  slavery  to  be  stripped  of  self-govern- 
ment in  matters  of  the  purse. 

Now  that  the  French  were  driven  out,  it  was  more 
useless  than  ever  to  argue  the  point.  The  chief  and 
most  obvious  reason  for  feeling  dependent  upon  the 
mother  country  was  gone.  Awe  of  the  British  was 
gone,  too.  The  provincial  levies  raised  in  the  colonies 
had  fought  alongside  the  King's  troops  in  all  the  move- 
ments of  the  war,  and  had  found  themselves  not  a  whit 
less  undaunted  under  fire,  not  a  whit  less  able  to  stand 
and  fight,  not  a  whit  less  needed  in  victory.  Brad- 
dock  had  died  loathing  the  redcoats  and  wishing  to 
see  none  but  the  blue  cloth  of  the  Virginian  volunteers. 
When  the  war  began,  a  regular  from  over  sea  had  seem- 
ed to  the  colonists  an  unapproachable  master  of  arms; 
but  the  provincials  knew  when  the  war  was  over  that 
the  redcoats  were  no  better  than  they  were.  They 
had  nothing  to  remember  with  mortification  except 
the  insulting  contempt  some  of  the  British  officers 
had  shown  for  them,  and  the  inferior  rank  and  con- 
sideration their  own  officers  had  been  compelled  to 
accept. 

It  was  the  worst  possible  time  the  home  government 
could  have  chosen  in  which  to  change  its  policy  of  con- 
cession towards  the  colonies  and  begin  to  tax  and  govern 
them  by  act  of  Parliament;  and  yet  that  was  exactly 
124 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE  WAYS 


what  the  ministers  determined  to  do.  No  master  of 
affairs  or  of  men,  like  Walpole  or  Pitt,  was  any  longer 
in  a  place  of  guiding  authority  in  London.  George 
Grenville  was  prime  minister:  a  thorough  official  and 
very  capable  man  of  affairs,  of  unquestionable  integ- 
rity, and  with  a  cer- 
tain not  unhandsome 
courage  as  of  convic- 
tion in  what  he  did, 
but  incapable  of  un- 
derstanding those  who 
opposed  or  resisted 
him,  or  of  winning 
from  them  except  by 
an  exercise  of  power. 
The  late  war  had  been 
no  mere  "  French  and 
Indian"  affair  for 
English  statesmen. 
It  had  been  part  of 
that  stupendous  "  Sev- 
en Years'  War  "  which 
had  fixed  Prussia  in  a 
place  of  power  under 
the  great  Frederick, 
and  had  changed  the 

whole  balance  of  power  in  Europe;  had  brought  India 
under  England's  widening  dominion  on  one  side  of  the 
world  and  America  on  the  other, — had  been  a  vast 
game  which  the  stout  little  island  kingdom  had  played 
almost  alone  against  united  Europe.  It  had  not  been 
a  mere  American  war.  America  had  reaped  the  bene- 
fits of  England's  effort  to  found  an  empire  and  secure 

12$ 


GEORGE   GRENVILLE 


A    HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

it,  east  and  west.  And  3^et  the  colonists  seemed,  when 
this  momentous  war  by  which  they  had  so  profited  was 
over,  to  drop  into  indifference  towards  everything  that 
remained  to  be  done  to  finish  what  had  been  so  well  be- 
gun, even  though  it  remained  to  be  done  at  their  own 
very  doors. 

France  had  ceded  to  England  as  a  result  of  the  war 
all  the  vast  territory  which  lay  upon  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  eastern  moun- 
tains, north  and  south.  It  was  possible  to  provide  a 
government  for  the  province  of  Quebec  and  for  the  lands 
in  the  far  south,  in  Florida  and  beside  the  mouths  of 
the  Mississippi ;  but  between  these  lay  the  long  regions 
which  stretched,  unsettled,  along  the  great  streams 
which  ran  everywhere  into  the  Mississippi, — the  Il- 
linois country,  the  country  round  about  the  Ohio,  the 
regions  by  the  Cumberland,— all  the  boundless  "back 
country"  which  lay  directly  behind  the  colonies  at 
the  west.  The  Lords  Commissioners  for  Trade  and 
Plantations  in  London  wished  to  keep  settlers  out  of 
these  lands,  in  order  that  they  might  be  left  as  a  great 
hunting  ground  for  the  Indians,  and  so  remain  a  per- 
manent source  of  supply  for  the  fur  skins  which  en- 
riched trade  between  the  mother  country  and  her  colonies. 
But.  meanwhile,  whether  settlers  made  their  way  thither 
or  not,  it  was  necessary  to  carry  England's  power  among 
the  Indians,  and  make  them  know  that  she,  and  not 
the  King  of  France,  was  now  sovereign  there.  This 
the  Indians  were  slow  to  believe.  They  could  not  know 
what  treaty-makers  in  Europe  had  decided:  they  did 
not  believe  that  the  French  would  leave  and  the  Eng- 
lish come  in  in  their  stead  at  the  western  forts ;  and  it 
moved  them  hotly  to  think  of  such  a  change.  The 


THE    PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 


BOUNDARY    MONUMENT   ON   THE   ST.   CROIX 

French  had  made  them  welcome  at  their  frontier  posts, 
and  did  not  drive  off  the  game,  as  Duquesne  had  told 
them,  ere  this  fatal  war  began.  The  French  had  been 
willing  to  be  comrades  with  them,  and  had  dealt  with 
them  with  a  certain  gracious  courtesy  and  considera- 
tion ;  while  the  English  treated  them,  when  they  dared, 
like  dogs  rather  than  like  men,  drove  them  far  into  the 
forests  at  their  front  as  they  advanced  their  settlements 
bullied  them,  and  often  cheated  them  in  trade.  It 
was  intolerable  to  the  northern  Indians  to  think  of  these 
men  whom  they  feared  and  hated  being  substituted 
for  the  French,  with  whom  they  found  it  at  least  possi- 
ble to  live. 

They  were  dangerous  neighbors,  and  the  danger  was 
near  and  palpable.    The  war   with  the  French  was 
127 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

hardly  over  when  English  settlers  began  to  pour  across 
the  Alleghanies  from  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  and  Vir- 
ginia,— men  of  the  stern  and  sober  Scots-Irish  breed- 
ing for  the  most  part,  masterful  and  imperious,  and 
sure  to  make  the  lands  they  settled  upon  entirely  their 
own.  There  were  already  tribes  among  the  Indians 
in  the  northwest  who  had  been  driven  out  of  Penn- 
sylvania by  the  earlier  movements  of  these  same  people, 
and  who  had  taken  with  them  to  their  new  homes  the 
distress  and  the  dread  of  exile.  It  were  fatal,  they 
knew,  to  wait.  If  the  English  were  ever  to  be  driven 
within  the  barriers  of  the  Alleghanies  again,  it  must 
be  done  now,  and  all  the  tribes  must  rally  to  the  des- 
perate business. 

They  found  a  leader  in  Pontiac,  a  chief  of  the  Otta- 
was.  A  dozen  powerful  tribes  heeded  him  when  he 
counselled  secret  confederacy,  and,  when  all  should 
be  ready,  sudden  war;  and  the  English  presently  had 
reason  to  know  how  able  an  enemy  they  had  to  fear, 
— a  man  of  deep  counsel,  astute  and  masterful.  In 
June,  1763,  the  first  blow  was  struck, — from  end  to 
end  of  the  open  border, — even  the  Senecas,  one  of  the 
Six  Nations,  joining  in  the  bitter  work.  Every  frontier 
tort  except  Detroit,  Niagara,  and  Pitt  was  in  their  hands 
at  the  first  surprise:  smoking  ruins  and  the  bodies 
of  white  men  slain  marked  all  the  borders  where  the 
French  had  been.  The  English  rallied,  stubborn  and 
undaunted.  Three  forts  at  least  were  saved.  There 
were  men  at  hand  like  Colonel  Bouquet,  the  gallant 
officer  who  went  to  the  relief  of  Fort  Pitt,  who  knew 
the  strategy  of  the  forest  as  \vell  as  the  redskins  did, 
and  used  steadfast  English,  not  fickle  savages,  in  the 
fighting;  and,  though  the  work  was  infinitely  hard 
12$ 


THE   PARTING   OF  THE  WAYS 

and  perilous  and  slow  in  the  doing,  within  two  years 
it  was  done.  Before  the  year  1765  was  out,  Pontiac 
had  been  brought  to  book,  had  acknowledged  himself 
beaten,  and  had  sued  for  peace. 


PONTIAC.   CHIEF   OF   THE   OTTAWAS 


But  by  that  time  the  English  ministers  knew  the 
nature  of  the  task  which  awaited  them  in  America. 
It  was  plain  that  they  must  strengthen  the  frontier 
posts  and  maintain  a  force  of  soldiers  in  the  colonies, 
it  English  power  was  to  be  safe  there,  and  English 
u -9  129 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

lives.  Not  fewer  than  twenty  thousand  men  would 
be  needed;  and  it  would  be  necessary  to  organize 
government,  civil  as  well  as  military,  in  a  more  effec- 
tive way.  It  might  be  necessary  to  pay  the  colonial 
judges  and  even  the  colonial  governors  out  of  the  gen- 
eral treasury  of  the  empire,  rather  than  leave  them 
always  dependent  upon  the  uncertain  grants  of  the 
colonial  legislatures.  The  new  plans  would,  taken  all 
together,  involve,  it  was  reckoned,  the  expenditure  of  at 
least  £300,000  a  year.  Mr.  Grenville,  now  at  the  head 
of  the  government  in  England,  was  a  lawyer  and  a 
man  of  business.  "He  took  public  business  not  as  a 
duty  which  he  was  to  fulfil,  but  as  a  pleasure  he  was 
to  enjoy/'  and,  unfortunately,  he  regarded  American 
affairs  as  ordinary  matters  of  duty  and  of  business. 
England  had  spent  £60,000,000  sterling  to  put  the  French 
out  of  America;  £140,000,000  had  been  added  to  the 
national  debt.  Her  own  sources  of  revenue  were  quite 
run  dry.  Mr.  Grenville  and  his  colleagues  did  not 
know  where  else  to  turn  for  another  penny,  if  not  to 
America.  They  therefore  determined  that,  since  heavy 
additional  expenditures  must  be  undertaken  for  the 
proper  administration  and  defence  of  the  colonies, 
America  must  be  made  to  supply  at  least  a  part  of  the 
money  to  meet  them.  Not  all  of  it.  It  was  the  minis- 
ters' first  idea  to  raise  only  £100,000  out  of  the  £300,000 
by  taxes  directly  derived  from  the  colonies:  and  every 
farthing  of  that,  with  twice  as  much  more,  was  to  be 
spent,  of  course,  in  America.  The  money  was  none 
of  it  to  cross  the  sea.  It  was  to  remain  in  the  colonial 
treasuries  until  expended  for  colonial  administration 
and  defence. 

Some  men  there  were  in  England  who  were  far-sighted 
130 


THE    PARTING    OF   THE    WAYS 


enough  to  see  what  this  new  policy  would  lead  to;  but 
Grenville  did  not,  and  Parliament  did  not.  In  March, 
1764,  therefore,  upon  the  introduction  of  his  annual 


HKNKY    UulIQUET 


budget,  the  prime  minister  introduced  a  bill,  which 
was  passed,  laying  fresh  and  more  effective  taxes  on 
wines,  sugar,  and  molasses  imported  into  the  colonies, 
tightening  and  extending  the  old  Navigation  Acts 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

and  still  further-  restraining  manufactures ;  and  at  the 
same  time  announced  that  he  would,  the  next  year, 
p-opose  a  moderate  direct  tax  upon  the  colonies  in  the 
form  of  an  act  requiring  revenue  stamps  to  be  used 


BOUQUKT'S  REDOUBT  AT  PITTSBURG 

on  the  principal  so^ts  of  documents  employed  in  Amer- 
ica in  legal  and  mercantile  business. 

Mr.  Grenville  had  no  desi-e  to  irritate  the  Americans. 
He  thought  they  might  protest ;  he  never  dreamed  they 
would  disobey.  He  was,  no  doubt,  surprised  when  he 
learned  how  hot  their  protests  were ;  and  when  his  Stamp 
Act  the  next  year  became  law,  their  anger  and  flat 
defiance  must  have  seemed  to  him  mere  wanton  re- 
bellion. He  introduced  the  Stamp  Act  with  his  budget 
of  1765.  The  Commons  gave  only  a  single  sitting  to 
the  discussion  of  its  principles;  passed  it  almost  with- 
out opposition;  and  by  the  22d  of  March  it  was  law. 
132 


THE   PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 

A  few  members  protested.  Colonel  Barre,  standing 
there  in  his  place,  square,  swarthy,  a  soldier  from  the 
field,  that  staring  wound  upon  his  face  which  he  had 


PATRICK   HENRY 


taken  where  Wolfe  died,  on  the  Plains  of  Abraham, 
told  the  ministers  very  flatly  that  the  colonists,  whom 
he  had  seen  and  fought  for,  owed  to  them  neither  the 
planting  nor  the  nourishing  of  their  colonies,  had  a 
133 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

liberty  they  had  made  for  themselves,  were  very  jeal- 
ous of  that  liberty,  and  would  vindicate  it.  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  in  London  to  make  protest  for  Penn- 
sylvania; and  the  agents  of  the  other  colonies  were  as 
active  as  he,  and  as  ready  to  promise  that  the  colonial 
legislatures  would  themselves  grant  out  of  their  own 
treasuries  more  than  the  Act  could  yield,  if  only  they 
were  left  to  do  it  in  their  own  way.  Mr.  Franklin 


SIGNATURE   OF   ISAAC   BARR& 

had  pointed  out  in  very  plain  terms  how  sharp  a  de- 
parture there  was  in  such  measures  from  the  traditional 
dealings  of  the  crown  with  the  colonies,  how  loyal  they 
had  been  in  granting  supplies  when  required,  and  how 
ill  a  new  way  of  taxation  would  sit  upon  the  spirits  of 
the  colonists.  But  the  vote  for  the  bill  was  five  to  one. 
Neither  the  ministers  nor  the  Commons  showed  the 
least  hesitation  or  misgiving. 

The  Act  operated  in  America  like  a  spark  dropped 
on  tinder.  First  dismay,  then  anger,  then  riot  and 
open  defiance,  showed  what  the  colonists  thought  and 
meant  to  do.  Their  own  agents  in  London  were  as 
little  prepared  as  the  ministers  themselves  for  the  sub- 
den  passion.  They  had  asked  for  appointments  for 
their  friends  as  stamp  distributers  under  the  Act.  Rich- 
ard Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  even  asked  for  a  place 
for  himself  under  it,  so  different  a  look  did  things  wear 
in  London  from  that  which  they  wore  at  home  in  the 
Old  Dominion.  But  these  gentlemen  learned  the  temper 
134 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

of  America,  and  changed  their  own,  soon  enough. 
The  Act  was  in  no  way  extraordinary  or  oppressive 
in  its  provisions.  It  required  of  the  colonists  only  what 
was  already  required  in  respect  of  business  transac- 
tions in  England:  namely,  that  revenue  stamps,  of 
values  varying  with  the  character  of  the  transaction 


FACSIMILE  OF   POSTER    PLACED   ON   THE   DOORS   OF   PUBLIC   BUILDINGS 

or  the  amount  involved,  should  be  attached  to  all  deeds, 
wills,  policies  of  insurance,  and  clearance  papers  for 
ships,  to  legal  papers  of  almost  every  kind,  to  all  writ- 
ten contracts  and  most  of  the  business  papers  used  by 
merchants  in  their  formal  dealings,  and  to  all  periodical 
publications  and  advertisements.  The  colonies  them- 
selves had  imposed  such  taxes;  in  England  they  had 

VOL.    II. II  J  TC 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

been  used  since  William  and  Mary,  and  had  proved 
eminently  convenient  and  easy  of  collection.  Govern- 
or Shirley,  of  Massachusetts,  had  himself  urged  that 
Parliament  use  them  in  America,  American  though 
he  was.  Mr.  Franklin  had  taken  it  for  granted,  when 
he  saw  the  Act  become  law,  that  they  must  be  submitted 
to.  But  America  flatly  refused  obedience,  and,  except 
in  the  newly  conquered  provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and 
.Canada,  the  stamps  were  not  used. 

The  Act  was  not  to  go  into  operation  until  the  1st 
of  November  (1765);  but  long  before  the  first  of  Novem- 
ber it  was  evident  that  it  would  not  go  into  effect  at 
all.  It  was  universally  condemned  and  made  impossi- 
ble of  application.  There  was  instant  protest  from  the 
colonial  assemblies  so  soon  as  it  was  known  that  the 
Act  was  passed;  and  the  assembly  of  Massachusetts 
proposed  that  a  congress  of  delegates  from  the  several 
colonies  be  held  in  October,  ere  the  Act  went  into  effect, 
to  decide  what  should  be  done  to  serve  their  common 
interest  in  the  critical  matter.  The  agitations  and 
tumults  of  that  eventful  summer  were  not  soon  for- 
got. In  August,  Boston  witnessed  an  outbreak  such 
as  she  had  never  witnessed  before.  Mr.  Andrew  Oliver, 
who  had  been  appointed  distributer  of  the  stamps  there, 
was  burned  in  effigy ;  the  house  in  which  it  was  thought 
the  stamps  were  to  be  stored  was  torn  down ;  Mr.  Oliver's 
residence  was  broken  into  and  many  of  its  furnishings 
were  destroyed.  He  hastily  resigned  his  obnoxious 
office.  Mobs  then  plundered  the  house  of  the  deputy 
registrar  of  the  court  of  admiralty,  destroying  his 
private  papers  and  the  records  and  files  of  the  court, 
— because  the  new  acts  of  trade  and  taxation  gave 
new  powers  to  that  court.  The  house  of  the  comp- 
136 


THE  PARTING   OF  THE  WAYS 

troller  of  customs  was  sacked.    Mr.  Thomas  Hutchin- 
son,  the  lieutenant-governor  of  the  colony,  found  him- 


J°HN  DICKINSON 

self  obliged,  on  the  night  of  the  26th,  to  flee  for  his 
life;  and  returned  when  order  was  restored  to  find  his 
home  stripped  of  everything  it  contained,  including 
nine  hundred  pounds  sterling  in  money,  and  manu- 
137 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

scripts  and  books  which  he  had  been  thirty  years  col- 
lecting. Only  the  walls  and  floors  of  the  house  re- 
mained. 


THOMAS    HUTCHINSON 


There  was  no  violence  elsewhere  to  equal  this  in 
Boston.  There  was  tumult  everywhere,  but  in  most 
places  the  mobs  contented  themselves  with  burning 
the  stamp  agents  in  effigy  and  frightening  them  into 
the  instant  relinquishment  of  their  offices.  Not  until 
T38 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

the  autumn  came,  and  the  day  for  the  application  of 
the  Act,  did  they  show  a  serious  temper  again.  Then 
New  York  also  saw  a  house  sacked  and  its  furniture 
used  to  feed  a  bonfire.  The  people  insisted  upon  having 
the  stamps  handed  over  to  their  own  city  officers;  and 
when  more  came  they  seized  and  burned  them.  At 
Philadelphia  many  Quakers  and  Church  of  England 


THOMAS    HUTCI1INSON  S    MANSION,   BOSTON 

men,  and  some  Baptists,  made  as  if  they  would  have 
obeyed  the  Act ;  but  the  mobs  saw  to  it  that  they  should 
not  have  the  chance.  The  stamp  distributer  was  com- 
pelled to  resign,  and  there  was  no  one  from  whom 
stamps  could  be  obtained.  Stamp  distributers  who 
would  not  resign  found  it  best  to  seek  safety  in  flight. 
There  was  no  one  in  all  the  colonies,  north  or  south, 
who  had  authority  to  distribute  the  hated  pieces  of 
stamped  paper  which  the  ministers  had  expected  would 
so  conveniently  yield  them  a  modest  revenue  for  their 
colonial  expenses.  There  was  a  little  confusion  and 
139 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

inconvenience  for  a  time.  The  courts  hesitated  to 
transact  business  without  affixing  the  stamps  required 
to  their  written  pleadings;  it  seemed  imprudent  to  send 
ships  out  without  stamps  on  their  clearance  papers; 
business  men  doubted  what  would  come  of  using  no 
stamps  in  their  transactions.  But  the  hesitation  did 
not  last  long.  Business  was  presently  going  for- 
ward, in  court  and  out,  as  before,  and  never  a  stamp 
used! 

It  was  singular  and  significant  how  immediately 
and  how  easily  the  colonies  drew  together  to  meet  the 
common  danger  and  express  a  common  purpose.  Early 
in  October  the  congress  which  Massachusetts  had  asked 
for  came  together  at  New  York,  the  delegates  of  nine 
colonies  attending.  It  drew  up  and  sent  over  sea  a 
statement  of  the  right  of  the  colonies  to  tax  and  govern 
themselves, — as  loyal  to  the  King,  but  not  as  subject 
to  Parliament, — which  arrested  the  attention  of  the 
world.  Mr.  Grenville  and  his  colleagues  were  just 
then,  by  a  fortunate  turn  of  politics  at  home,  most 
opportunely  obliged  to  resign,  and  gave  place  to  the 
moderate  Whigs  who  followed  Lord  Rockingham  (July, 
1765),  and  who  thought  the  protests  of  the  colonies  not 
unreasonable.  On  the  i8th  of  March,  1766,  according^, 
the  Stamp  Act  was  repealed, — within  a  year  of  its  enact- 
ment. It  was  at  the  same  time  declared,  however,  by 
special  declaratory  act,  that  Parliament  had  sovereign 
right  to  tax  the  colonies,  and  legislate  for  them,  if  it 
pleased.  It  was  out  of  grace  and  good  policy,  the  minis- 
ters declared,  that  the  tax  was  withdrawn ;  a  concession, 
not  of  right,  but  of  good  feeling;  and  everybody  kne\v 
that  it  was  done  as  much  because  the  London  merchants 
were  frightened  by  the  resolution  of  the  American 
140 


S  T  A  M  P  -  O    F  F   I  C   E, 

Lincoln \s-Inn,  1765. 


T    A    B    L    E 

Of  the  Prices  of  Parchment  and  Paper  for  the  Service 
of  America. 


Skins  18  Inch,  by  13,  at  Four  pence 
,         22  . by  16,  at  Six-pence 


Paper. 

'  'Horn  at  Seven-pence  .  ••. 
Fools  Cap  at  Nine- pence 
by  20,  at  Eight-pence     Veach.     Dc  with  printed  Notices") 

-. '.by  2  3,  at  Ten-pence       (  •      for  Indentures  J  I 

by  26,  at  Thinccn-pencc  J  Folio  Poft  at  One  Shill.hg      >.  each  .Qui.r<, 

Demy at  Two  Shillings.  I  ..' 

Medium     at  Three  Shillings 

Royal- at.Fcmr  Shillings    I  .         . 

Super  Royal  .at  Six  Shillings  "j 


Paper  for  Printing 


Double  Crown  at  145.  1  each'R,a 
Double  Demy  at  195.  j 


Almanacks.  .      ' 

Book — Crown  Paper  at  ios.-6d.y      •      . 

Book ^Fools  Cap  at  6s.  i6d.teach  Jie 

Pocket  —  Folio  Poll. at  20  s.     I 
Sheet — —Demy       at  135.     "3  ..-,- 


TABLE   OF   STAMP  CHARGES  ON   PAPER 


A    HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

merchants  to  take  no  cargoes  under  the  tax  as  because 
the  colonies  had  declined  to  submit.  But  the  results 
were  none  the  less  salutary.  The  rejoicings  in  Amer- 


LORD   ROCKINGHAM 


ica  were  as  boisterous  and  as  universal  as  had  beeii 
the  tempest  of  resentment. 

But  that  was  not  the  end  of  the  matter.     The  Stamp 
Act  had  suddenly  brought  to  light  and  consciousness 
142 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

principles  and  passions  not  likely  to  be  again  submerged, 
and  which  it  was  worth  the  while  of  statesmen  over 
sea  to  look  into  very  carefully.  Some  there  were  in 
England  who  understood  them  well  enough.  Mr. 
John  Adams  used  to  say,  long  afterwards,  that  the 
trouble  seemed  to  him  to  have  begun,  not  in  1765,  but 
in  1761.  It  was  in  that  year  that  all  the  colonies, 
north  and  south,  had  heard  of  what  James  Otis  had 
said  in  the  chief  court  of  the  province  at  Boston  against 
the  general  warrants,  the  sweeping  writs  of  assistance, 
for  which  the  customs  officers  of  the  crown  had  asked, 
to  enable  them  to  search  as  they  pleased  for  goods 
brought  in  from  foreign  parts  in  defiance  of  the  acts 
of  trade.  The  writs  were  not  new,  and  Mr.  Otis's  pro- 
test had  not  put  a  stop  to  their  issue.  It  had  proved 
of  no  avail  to  say,  as  he  did,  that  they  were  an  intol- 
erable invasion  of  individual  right,  flat  violations  of 
principles  of  law  which  had  become  a  part  of  the  very 
constitution  of  the  realm,  and  that  even  an  act  of  Par- 
liament could  not  legalize  them.  But  all  the  colonies 
had  noted  that  hot  contest  in  the  court  at  Boston,  be- 
cause Mr.  Otis  had  spoken  with  a  singular  eloquence 
which  quickened  men's  pulses  and  irresistibly  swung 
their  minds  into  the  current  of  his  own  thought,  and 
because  it  had  made  them  more  sharply  aware  than 
before  of  what  the  ministers  at  home  were  doing  to  fix 
upon  the  colonies  the  direct  power  of  the  government 
over  sea.  These  writs  of  assistance  gave  the  officers 
who  held  them  authority  to  search  any  place  they  pleased 
for  smuggled  goods,  whether  private  residence  or  public 
store-house,  with  or  without  reasonable  ground  of  sus- 
picion, and  meant  that  the  government  had  at  last 
seriously  determined,  at  whatever  cost,  to  break  up 
M3 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 


the  trade  with  the  West  Indies  and  the  Spanish  Main. 
Presently  armed  cutters  were  put  on  the  coasts  the 
more  effectually  to  stop  it.  A  vice-admiralty  court 
was  set  up  to  condemn  the  cargoes  seized,  without  a 
jury.  The  duties  were  to  be  rigorously  collected  and 
the  trade  broken  up,  for  the  sake  of  the  sugar  growers 

of  the  British  West 
Indies  and  mer- 
chants in  London. 

If  New  England 
could  no  longer 
send  her  horses, 
cattle,  lumber, 
casks,  and  fish  to 
the  French  islands 
and  the  Spanish 
Main,  and  bring 
thence,  in  exchange 
for  them,  sugar  and 
molasses,  she  must 
let  her  ships  rot  at 
the  wharves  and 
five  thousand  of  her 
seamen  go  idle  and 
starve ;  must  seek 
elsewhere  for  a  mar- 
ket for  her  chief  products ;  could  make  no  more  rum  with 
which  to  carry  on  her  home  trade  in  spirits  or  her  traffic 
in  slaves  on  the  slave  coast;  must  forego  her  profits 
at  the  southern  ports,  and  go  without  the  convenient 
bills  drawn  on  exported  Virginian  tobacco  wherewith 
she  had  been  used  to  pay  her  debts  to  the  London  mer- 
chants. For  thirty  years  and  more  it  had  been  under- 
144 


JAMES   OTIS 


THE   PARTING    OF   THE  WAYS 


stood  that  the  duties  on  that  trade  were  not  to  be  col- 
lected ;  but  now,  of  a  sudden,  the  law  was  to  be  carried 
out  by  armed  vessels,  writs  of  general  search,  and  the 
summary  proceedings  of  a  court  of  admiralty.  In  1764 
Mr.  Grenville  had  drawn  the  lines  tighter  than  ever  by 
a  readjustment  of  duties. 
That  meant  ruin ;  and  the 
Stamp  Act  was  but  the 
last  touch  of  exasperation. 
The  disposition  of  the  min- 
isters seemed  all  the  more 
obvious  because  of  the  ob- 
noxious "  Quartering  Act " 
which  went  along  with  the 
Stamp  Act.  They  were 
authorized  by  Parliament 
to  quarter  troops  in  the 
colonies,  .and  by  special 
enactment  the  colonists 
were  required  to  provide 
the  troops  with  lodgings, 
firewood,  bedding,  drink, 
soap,  and  candles. 

There  were  other  causes 
of  irritation  which  touched 
the  colonists  almost  as 

nearly.  In  1740  the  Massachusetts  assembly  had  set 
up  a  Land  Bank  authorized  to  issue  notes  based  upon 
nothing  but  mortgages  on  land  and  personal  bonds, 
with  surety,  given  by  those  who  subscribed  to  its  sup- 
port, and  Parliament,  at  the  solicitation  of  Boston 
men  who  knew  what  certain  disaster  such  a  bank 
would  bring  upon  the  business  of  the  colony,  had 
u.-io  145 


STAMPS   FORCED  ON  THE  COLONIES 


.        A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

thrust  in  its  hand  and  suppressed  it.  The  scheme 
had  been  in  great  favor  among  the  men  of  the 
country  districts,  and  its  suppression  by  direct  act  of 
Parliament  had  stirred  them  to  a  deep  resentment. 
"The  Act  to  destroy  the  Land  Bank  scheme,"  John 
Adams  declared,  had  "  raised  a  greater  ferment  in  the 
province  than  the  Stamp  Act  did";  and  it  made  the 
men  who  had  resented  it  all  the  readier  to  take  fire 
at  the  imposition  of  the  stamp  duties.  The  churches 
of  the  province  had  been  deeply  alarmed,  too,  by  the 
effort  of  English  churchmen  to  establish  bishops  in 
America,  as  if  in  preparation  for  a  full  Establishment  ; 
and  the  clergy  were,  almost  to  a  man,  suspicious  of  the 
government.  The  lumbermen  of  the  forests  felt  the 
constant  irritation  of  the  crown's  claim  to  all  their 
best  sticks  of  timber  for  the  royal  navy,  and  were 
themselves  fit  fuel  for  agitation.  Each  class  seemed 
to  have  its  special  reason  for  looking  askance  at  every- 
thing that  savored  of  control  from  over  sea.  The  meas- 
ures taken  against  the  trade  with  the  Indies  were  but 
the  latest  item  in  a  growing  account. 

Massachusetts  and  the  greater  trading  ports  of  the 
south  felt  the  burden  of  the  new  policy  more  than  the 
rest  of  the  country  felt  it;  but  thoughtful  men  every- 
where saw  what  it  portended  that  Parliament  should 
thus  lay  its  hand  directly  upon  the  colonies  to  tax, 
and  in  some  sort  to  govern,  them.  Quite  as  many  men 
could  tell  you  of  the  "parson's  case,"  tried  in  quiet 
Hanover  Court  House  in  rural  Virginia,  as  could  tell 
you  of  Mr.  Otis's  speech  against  the  writs  of  assistance. 
It  meant  that  the  authorities  in  London  were  thrusting 
their  hands  into  the  affairs  of  Virginia  just  as  they 
were  thrusting  them  into  the  affairs  of  Massachusetts. 
146 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Parson  Maury  had  in  that  case  set  up  an  Order  in 
Council  by  the  ministers  at  home  against  an  act  of  the 
Virginian  House  of  Burgesses  determining  the  value  of 
the  currency  in  which  his  salary  was  to  be  paid,  and 
young  Patrick  Henry  had  sprung  into  sudden  fame 
by  declaring  to  the  court  very  boldly  against  him  that 
the  crown  had  no  right  to  override  the  self-government 
of  Virginia. 

The  eloquence  of  that  famous  speech  carried  the  young 
advocate  to  the  House  of  Burgesses  itself;  and  it  was 
he  who  showed  the  colonies  how  to  speak  of  the  Stamp 
Act.  The  burgesses  were  in  session  when  the  news 
of  that  hateful  law's  enactment  reached  Virginia.  The 
young  member  waited  patiently  for  the  older  members 
of  the  House  to  show  the  way  in  the  new  crisis, — 
Randolph  and  Pendleton  and  Nicholas,  Richard  Bland 
and  George  Wythe,  —  the  men  who  had  framed  so 
weighty  a  protest  and  warning  and  sent  so  strong  a 
remonstrance  over  sea  only  last  year  against  this  very 
measure.  But  when  he  saw  that  they  would  not  lead, 
he  sprang  to  the  task  himself,  plain,  country-bred  though 
he  was,  and  unschooled  in  that  leadership;  scribbled 
his  resolutions  on  the  fly-leaf  of  an  old  law-book,  and 
carried  them  with  a  rush  of  eloquence  that  startled  and 
swept  the  House,  and  set  the  tone  for  all  the  country. 

His  resolutions  not  only  declared  the  right  of  the 
colonies  to  tax  themselves  to  be  exclusive,  and  establish- 
ed beyond  recall;  they  also  declared  that  Virginians 
were  not  bound  to  obey  the  Parliament  when  it  acted 
thus  against  established  privilege,  and  that  any  one 
who  should  advocate  obedience  was  an  enemy  to  the 
colony.  The  sober  second  thought  of  the  burgesses 
cut  that  defiant  conclusion  out  at  last,— after  Mr.  Henry 
148 


THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 

had  gone  home;  but  the  resolutions  had  already  been 
sent  post-haste  through  the  colonies  in  their  first  form. 


GEORGE    WYTHE 

unrevised  and  unsoftened,  and  had  touched  the  feeling 
of  every  one  who  read  them  like  a  flame  of  fire.     They 
were  the  first  word  of  revolution;  and  no   man  ever 
thought  just  the  same  again  after  he  had  read  them. 
149 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

It  seemed  a  strange  defiance,  no  doubt,  to  come  from 
loyal  Virginia.  The  Stamp  Act  was  not,  in  fact,  op- 
pressive or  unreasonable.  Why  should  it  so  kindle 
the  anger  of  the  colonies  that  the  sovereign  Parliament, 
which  had  for  many  a  day  levied  indirect  charges 
upon  them  by  means  of  the  many  acts  concerning  trade 
and  manufactures,  now  laid  a  moderate  direct  tax 
upon  them,  the  proceeds  of  which  were  to  be  spent  upon 
their  own  protection  and  administration?  Because, 
though  it  might  be  the  sovereign  legislature  of  the 
empire,  Parliament  was  not  in  their  view  the  direct 
sovereign  legislature  of  America.  No  one  could  truly 
say  that  Parliament  had  been  the  sovereign  power 
even  of  England  before  1688,  that  notable  year  in  which 
it  had,  by  a  revolution,  changed  the  succession  to  the 
throne  and  begun  the  making  and  unmaking  of  govern- 
ments. The  colonies  had  most  of  them  been  set  up 
before  that  momentous  year  of  change,  while  the  Par- 
liament was  still  only  a  body  of  representatives  asso- 
ciated with  the  crown,  with  the  right  to  criticise  and 
restrain  it,  but  with  no  right  to  usurp  its  prerogatives; 
entitled  to  be  consulted,  but  not  licensed  to  rule.  The 
King,  not  the  Parliament,  had  chartered  the  colonies; 
and  they  conceived  their  assemblies  to  be  associated 
with  him  as  Parliament  itself  had  been  in  the  older 
days  before  the  Revolution  of  1688 :  to  vote  him  grants, 
assent  to  taxation,  and  with  his  consent  make  the  laws 
they  were  to  live  under.  He  stood,  they  thought,  in 
the  same  relation  to  all  the  legislatures  of  his  realm: 
to  the  Parliament  in  England  and  to  the  assemblies 
in  America.  It  was  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
English  constitution,  as  all  agreed,  that  the  King's 
subjects  should  be  associated  with  him  in  government 
150 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

by  representation;  and,  since  the  Americans  could 
not  be  represented  in  Parliament,  and  were,  by  his  own 
authority,  represented  in  local  assemblies,  he  must  deal 
with  them,  not  through  Parliament,  but  through  those 
assemblies. 

The  law  of  their  view  was  not  very  sound  or  clear; 
but  the  common-sense  of  it  was  unassailable;  and  it 
rested  upon  unquestionable  and  long-standing  practice, 
that  best  foundation  of  institutions.  Their  govern- 
ments were  no  doubt,  in  law,  subject  to  the  govern- 
ment of  Great  Britain.  Whoever  ruled  there  had  the 
legal  right  to  rule  in  the  colonies  also,  whether  it  were 
the  King  independent  of  Parliament,  or  the  ministers 
dependent  upon  Parliament.  The  revolution  of  1688 
had  radically  altered  the  character  of  the  whole  structure, 
and  perhaps  the  colonies  could  not,  in  strict  constitu- 
tional theory,  decline  their  logical  part  in  the  change. 
But  no  man  in  America  had  ever  seen  that  revolution 
cross  the  seas.  English  statesmen  might  have  changed 
their  views,  but  the  colonies  had  not  changed  theirs, 
nor  the  practice  of  their  governments  either.  Their 
governments  were  from  of  old,  and  they  meant  to  keep 
them  intact  and  uncorrupted.  They  did  not  object  to 
the  amount  or  to  the  form  of  the  tax ;  they  objected  only 
that  they  had  not  themselves  imposed  it.  They  dis- 
sented utterly  from  the  opinion  that  Parliament  had 
the  right  to  tax  them  at  all.  It  was  that  principle,  and 
not  the  tax  itself,  which  moved  them  so  deeply. 

English  statesmen  claimed  that  the  colonists  were 
as  much  represented  in  Parliament  as  the  thousands 
of  Englishmen  in  England  who  did  not  have  the  right 
to  vote  for  members  of  the  Commons;  and  no  doubt 
they  were.  The  franchise  was  narrow  in  England, 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

and  not  the  whole  population  but  only  a  few  out  of  some 
classes  of  the  people  were  actually  represented  in  the 
Houses.  Were  not  the  interests  represented  there  which 
America  stood  for?  Perhaps  so.  But  why  govern 
the  colonies  through  these  remote  and  theoretical  repre- 
sentatives when  they  had,  and  had  always  had,  imme- 
diate and  actual  representatives  of  their  own  in  their 
assemblies,  —  as  ready  and  accessible  an  instrument 
of  government  as  the  House  of  Commons  itself?  The 
colonists  were  accustomed  to  actual  representation, 
had  for  a  century  and  more  been  dealt  with  by  means 
of  it,  and  were  not  willing  now  to  reverse  their  history 
and  become,  instead  of  veritable  states,  merely  detached 
and  dependent  pieces  of  England.  This  was  the  fire 
of  principle  which  the  Stamp  Act  kindled. 

And,  once  kindled,  it  burned  with  an  increasing 
flame.  Within  ten  years  it  had  been  blown  to  the  full 
blaze  of  revolution.  Mr.  Grenville  had  not  lost  his 
power  because  he  had  set  the  colonies  aflame  by  his 
hated  Stamp  Act.  but  merely  because  the  King  intense- 
ly disliked  his  tedious  manners,  and  resented  the  dicta- 
torial tone  used  by  the  ministers  in  all  their  dealings 
with  himself.  The  Marquis  of  Rockingham  and  the 
group  of  moderate  Whigs  who  stood  with  him  in  the 
new  ministry  of  July,  1765,  had  repealed  the  stamp 
tax,  not  because  they  deemed  it  wrong  in  legal  principle, 
but  because  it  had  bred  resistance,  had  made  the  colo- 
nists resolve  not  to  buy  goods  of  English  merchants, 
or  even  pay  the  debts  of  £4,000,000  sterling  already 
incurred  in  their  business  with  them, — because  they 
deemed  it  wise  to  yield,  and  so  quiet  disorders  over 
sea.  Their  power  lasted  only  a  single  year.  The 
King  liked  their  liberal  principles  as  little  as  he  liked 
152 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE  WAYS 

Grenville's  offensive  manners,  and  in  August,  1766, 
dismissed  them,  to  substitute  a  ministry  under  William 
Pitt,  now  made  Earl  of  Chatham.  Had  Pitt  retained 
his  mastery,  all  might  have  gone  well;  but  his  health 
failed,  his  leadership  became  a  mere  form,  real  power 
fell  to  other  men  with  no  wide,  perceiving  vision  like 
his  own,  and  America  was  presently  put  once  again 
in  revolutionary  mood. 

Pitt  had  said  that  the  colonists  were  right  when  they 
resisted  the  Stamp  Act :  that  Parliament  could  law- 
fully impose  duties  on  commerce,  and  keep,  if  it  would, 
an  absolute  monopoly  of  trade  for  the  English  mer- 
chants, because  such  matters  were  of  the  empire  and 
not  merely  of  America;  but  that  the  Americans  were 
justified  in  resisting  measures  of  internal  taxation 
and  government,  their  charters  and  accustomed  liberties 
no  doubt  giving  them  in  such  matters  constitutions  of 
their  own.  Mr.  Burke,  whose  genius  made  him  the 
spokesman  of  the  Rockingham  Whigs,  whether  they 
would  or  no,  had  said  very  vehemently,  and  with  that 
singular  eloquence  of  his  of  which  only  his  own  words 
know  the  tone,  that  he  cared  not  at  all  what  legal  rights 
might  be  involved;  it  was  a  question  of  government 
and  of  good-will  between  a  king  and  his  subjects;  and 
he  would  not  support  any  measure,  upon  whatever 
right  it  might  be  founded,  which  led  to  irritation  and 
not  to  obedience.  The  new  ministry  of  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  acted  upon  its  chief's  principles,  and  not 
upon  Mr.  Burke's, — though  they  acted  rashly  because 
that  consummate  chief  did  not  lead  them.  They  pro- 
ceeded (June,  1767),  after  the  great  earl's  illness  had 
laid  him  by,  to  put  upon  the  statute  book  two  acts  for 
the  regulation  of  colonial  trade  and  the  government 
153 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

of  the  colonies  which  Charles  Townshend,  their  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer,  had  drawn.  The  first  pro- 
vided for  the  more  effectual  enforcement  of  the  acts  of 
trade  already  in  existence;  the  second  imposed  duties 
on  wine,  oil,  lead,  glass,  paper,  painters'  colors,  and 
tea  carried  to  the  colonies,  and  explicitly  legalized 
the  use  of  the  hated  general  search  -  warrants  known 
as  "writs  of  assistance."  The  revenues  raised  by 
these  duties  were  to  be  applied,  as  the  stamp  tax  would 
have  been  had  it  been  collected,  to  the  support  of  the 
courts  of  justice  and  of  the  civil  establishments  of  the 
several  colonies,  and  to  the  expenses  connected  with 
their  military  defence.  Evasions  of  the  revenue  acts 
were  to  be  tried  by  the  admiralty  courts  without  juries. 

To  the  colonists  this  seemed  simply  a  return  to  the 
policy  of  the  Stamp  Act.  The  tax  was  different,  but 
the  object  was  the  same :  to  make  their  judges  and  their 
governors  independent  of  them,  and  to  compel  them 
to  pay  for  the  maintenance  of  troops  not  of  their  own 
raising.  These  same  ministers  had  suspended  the 
legislative  power  of  the  New  York  assembly  because 
it  refused  to  make  proper  provision  for  the  quartering 
of  the  King's  troops,  as  commanded  by  the  act  of  1765; 
and  that  assembly  had  felt  itself  obliged  to  yield  and 
obey.  Several  companies  of  royal  artillery  had  been 
sent  to  Boston  in  the  autumn  of  1766,  and  were  quartered 
there  at  the  colony's  expense  by  order  of  the  governor 
and  council. 

The  new  taxes  were  laid  upon  trade,  and  they  could 
not  be  attacked  on  the  same  grounds  upon  which  the 
stamps  had  been  objected  to.  But  the  trouble  was 
that  the  new  taxes,  unlike  the  old  restrictions,  were 
to  be  enforced,  evasion  prevented.  Mr.  Townshend's 
154 


THE  PARTING   OF  THE   WAYS 

first  act  was  to  send  commissioners  to  America  specially 
charged  and  empowered  to  see  to  that.     The  ruinoi  s 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON,    1772 

acts  of  1764  were  to  be  carried  out,  and  the  West  India 
trade,  by  which  Boston  merchants  and  ship  owners 
lived,  put  a  stop  to.  These  were  bitter  things  to  en- 
dure. Some  grounds  must  be  found  from  which  tc 
155 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

fight  them,  —  if  not  the  arguments  used  against  the 
Stamp  Act,  then  others,  if  need  be  more  radical.  The 
ministers  at  home  had  set  their  far-away  subjects  to 
thinking  with  the  eagerness  and  uneasiness  of  those 
who  seek  by  some  means  to  defend  their  liberties,  and 
were  fast  making  rebels  of  them. 

Even  in  the  midst  of  the  universal  rejoicings  over 
the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  the  temper  of  several  of 
the  colonial  assemblies  had  risen  at  reading  the  "De- 
claratory Act"  which  accompanied  the  repeal,  and 
which  asserted  the  absolute  legal  right  of  Parliament 
"to  bind  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever."  They 
had  declared  very  flatly  then  that  Parliament  had  no 
legal  authority  whatever  in  America  except  such  as  it 
might  exercise  by  the  consent  of  the  colonial  assemblies, 
— so  far  had  their  thought  and  their  defiant  purpose 
advanced  within  the  year.  There  were  conservative 
men  in  the  colonies  as  well  as  radical,  men  who  hated 
revolution  and  loved  the  just  and  sober  ways  of  law; 
and  there  was  as  strong  a  sentiment  of  Io3^alty  on  one 
side  the  sea  as  on  the  other.  But  even  conservative 
men  dreaded  to  see  Parliament  undertake  to  break 
down  the  independence  of  America.  Mr.  Thomas 
Hutchinson,  of  Massachusetts,  whose  house  the  rioters 
in  Boston  had  wantonly  looted  when  they  were  mad 
against  the  Stamp  Act,  had  been  born  and  bred  in  the 
colony,  and  loved  her  welfare  as  honestly  as  any  man; 
but  he  wras  lieutenant-governor,  an  officer  of  the  crown, 
and  would  have  deemed  it  dishonor  not  to  uphold  the 
authority  he  represented.  Mr.  Otis,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  resigned  his  office  as  Advocate  General  under  the 
crown  to  resist  the  writs  of  assistance.  The  public- 
spirited  gentlemen  who  had  opposed  Mr.  Henry's  fiery 

156 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

resolutions  in  the  Virginian  House  of  Burgesses  did 
not  fear  usurpation  or  hate  tyranny  less  than  he;  but 
they  loved  the  slow  processes  of  argument  and  pro- 
test and  strictly  legal  opposition  more  than  he  did,  and 
were  patient  enough  to  keep  within  bounds.  They 
feared  to  shake  an  empire  by  pursuing  a  right  too  im- 
petuously. Men  of  every  temper  and  of  every  counsel 
made  up  the  various  people  of  the  colonies,  and  there 
were  men  of  equal  patriotism  on  both  sides  of  the  rising 
quarrel. 

And  yet  the  most  moderate  and  slow-tempered  grew 
uneasy  at  Mr.  Townshend's  measures.  Mr.  John 
Dickinson,  of  Pennsylvania,  wrote  and  published  a 
series  of  letters, — Letters  of  a  Pennsylvania  Farmer, 
he  called  them, — which  stated  as  pointedly,  as  boldly, 
as  earnestly  as  any  man  could  wish,  the  constitutional 
rights  of  self-government  which  the  colonists  cherished 
and  thought  imperilled  by  the  new  acts  of  Parliament, 
— and  yet  Mr.  Dickinson  was  as  steady  a  loyalist  as 
any  man  in  America,  as  little  likely  to  countenance 
rebellion,  as  well  worth  heeding  by  those  who  wished 
to  compose  matters  by  wise  and  moderate  counsels. 
His  firm-spoken  protests  were,  in  fact,  read  and  pon- 
dered on  both  sides  the  water  (1767),  and  no  one  could 
easily  mistake  their  significance. 

The  action  of  the  people  gave  only  too  grave  an  em- 
phasis to  what  their  more  self-restrained  and  thought- 
ful leaders  said.  Mr.  Townshend's  acts  were  as  openly 
resisted  as  Mr.  Grenville's  had  been;  and  every  art 
of  evasion,  every  trick  of  infringement,  upon  occasion 
even  open  and  forcible  violation,  set  at  naught  other 
restrictions  of  trade  as  well.  It  was  startling  to  see 
how  rapidly  affairs  approached  a  crisis.  Resistance 
158 


A  LIST    of.  the   Names   of     thoje 

'  who  AVDAC.iousLYcontimieto  counteract  the  XJN'IT- 
En  'SKN'TIMEN  rs  of.  the  Bppr  of  Merchants  thro'oui 
NORTH-  AMERICA  ;  by  impoi'ting  Britiih  Goods 
cor.tr.'.ry  to  the  Agitemen.t.  '  ' 

John  Bernard^; 

(In  King-  Street,  almoft  oppofke  Vernon'sHead. 

Jaime*  McMaJiefs,  '•  . 

(On  Treat's  Wharf. 

Tatnc^McMaflw,  .  . 

•     '  (Oppbiite  the  Sign  of  the  Lamb, 

John.  'Md'm,  •.'•'.' 

(Opposite  the  VVhrre-Horfe,  and  in  King-Street. 

Xathxnisl  -Rogers, 

(O(i;>ofi;e  Nil-.  HenoerTu'o   Inches  Store  lower  End 


At  the  BriztnHiad.CornhiH,  near  tbeTown-Houfe. 

TbcopLihis  .  Lillie, 

(Nrn  Mi.PeA-.bsrton'sMtteting-HouffjNorrh-Enil. 


(N;  atly  ojipcSie  the  Heart  anclCrown  inCornhiH. 

slme  &  Elizabeth  Cummings, 

(Opjv.fite  the  Old  Brick  Meeting  Houfe,  ail  of  Bofton. 

7/?^/  Williams,  Efq;  6*  Son, 

(Tradtrs  in  the  Town  of  Hatfield. 

And,  Henrj  Barnes^ 

(Tratler  in  the  Town  of  Marlboro'. 
Ibt  jO'l 


County  of  Midd!eit«. 
Sanuiel  Hendley 
J-hnBo,bn<I 
H..-nry    Bat-net 
Ktfhajd  Carv 

County  of  Brifto!. 
Grorpt  B:ifhtman 
Coomy  <t»  Worct  Her. 


Harrtft  jb-juLi  ba-ve  been  i  ferttd  i 
Ibt  !://  of          ' 


Couniy  r.f  Lincoln. 
John  Kingfbury 

County  of  Berkshire. 
Ma.  k  Hopkins 
Eliph  Dwipht 
Ifrael  Stcddard 


LIST   OF   NAMES   OF   THOSE   WHO    WOULD   NOT   CONFORM 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

centred,  as  trade  itself  did,  at  Boston.  When  Mr. 
Townshend's  commissioners  of  customs  seized  the  sloop 
Liberty  in  Boston  harbor  for  evasion  of  the  duties, 
rioters  drove  them  to  the  fort  for  shelter,  and  they  sent 
hastily  to  England  for  more  troops.  The  Massachusetts 
assembly,  under  the  masterful  leadership  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Adams,  protested  that  the  measures  of  the  new  ministry 
were  in  violation  of  colonial  rights,  and  protested  in 
terms  which,  though  dignified  and  respectful  enough, 
were  unmistakably  imperative. 

The  leadership  of  Samuel  Adams  was  itself  a  sign 
of  the  times.  He  was  a  man  of  the  people,  passionate 
in  his  assertion  of  rights,  and  likely  to  stir  and  increase 
passion  in  those  for  whom  he  spoke.  Subtle,  a  born 
politician;  bold,  a  born  leader  of  men,  in  assembly 
or  in  the  street,  he  was  the  sort  of  man  and  orator 
whose  ascendency  may  mean  revolution  almost  when 
he  chooses.  The  assembly,  at  his  suggestion,  went  be- 
yond the  ordinary  bounds  of  protest  and  sent  a  circular 
letter  to  the  other  colonies,  as  if  to  invite  a  comparison 
of  views  and  a  general  acquiescence  in  the  course  of 
settled  opposition  it  had  itself  adopted.  When  the 
ministers  in  London  demanded  a  withdrawal  of  the 
letter,  the  assembly  of  course  refused,  and  the  other 
colonies  were  more  than  ever  inclined  to  stand  by  the 
stout  Bay  Colony  at  whose  capital  port  the  fight  centred. 
The  ministers,  in  their  desperate  purpose  to  compel 
submission,  declared  their  intention  to  remove  to  Eng- 
land for  trial  any  one  who  should  be  charged  with 
treason, — under  an  almost  forgotten  statute  passed  long 
before  Jamestown  was  settled  or  English  colonies  dream- 
ed of  in  America.  That  roused  the  Virginian  House 
of  Burgesses  once  more.  They  declared,  with  a  sort 
160 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE   WAYS 

of  quiet  passion,  in  their  session  of  1769,  that  no  one 
but  their  own  assemblies  had  a  right  to  tax  the  colonies ; 
that  they  had  the  inalienable  right  to  petition  the  gov- 
ernment at  home  upon  any  matter  of  grievance  what- 
ever, and  to  petition,  if  they  pleased,  jointly,  as  a  body 
of  colonies  united  in  right  and  interest;  and  that  any 
attempt  to  try  a  colonist  for  crime  anywhere  except  in 
the  courts  of  his  own  colony  and  by  known  course  of 
law  was  "highly  derogatory  of  the  right  of  British 
subjects,"  and  not  for  a  moment  to  be  deemed  within 
the  lawful  power  of  the  crown.  There  was  no  need 
this  time  for  Mr.  Henry.  All  men  were  now  of  the 
same  opinion  in  Virginia,  and  the  action  was  unanimous. 
The  Virginian  governor  at  once  dissolved  the  Bur- 
gesses; but  the  members  came  together  again  almost 
immediately  at  a  private  house;  and  there  Colonel 
Washington,  whom  all  the  English  world  had  known 
since  Braddock's  day,  proposed  a  general  agreement  to 
import  no  goods  at  all  upon  which  a  tax  was  laid, — to 
see  what  effect  it  would  have  if  the  English  tradesmen 
and  manufacturers  who  looked  to  America  for  a  market 
were  starved  into  a  true  appreciation  of  the  situation 
and  of  the  state  of  opinion  among  their  customers. 
Many  of  the  other  colonies  followed  suit.  Trade  with 
England  for  a  few  months  almost  stood  still,  and  there 
was  quick  distress  and  panic  among  those  interested 
over  sea.  They  promptly  demanded  of  Parliament 
that  the  new  taxes  be  taken  off  and  trade  allowed  to 
live  again.  The  ministers  yielded  (April,  1770), — 
except  with  regard  to  the  tax  on  tea.  That  was  the 
least  of  the  taxes,  and  the  King  himself  positively  com- 
manded that  it  be  retained,  to  save  the  principle  of  the 
bill  and  show  that  Parliament  had  not  reconsidered  its 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

right  to  tax.  The  taxes  had  yielded  nothing:  the 
single  tax  on  tea  would  serve  to  assert  a  right  without 
the  rest. 

Meanwhile  a  very  ominous  thing  had  happened  in 
Boston,  —  though  the  ministers  had  not  yet  heard  of 

The  true  Sons  of  Liberty 

And  Supporters  of  the  Non-Importation 
Agreement, 

ARE  determined  to  refent  any  the  lealt 
Infult  or  Menace  offer'd  to  any  one  or 
more  of  the  feveral    Committees  ap- 
pointed by  the  Body  at  Faneuil-Hall,   and 
chaftife  any  one  or  more  of  them   as  they 
deferve  ;  and  will  alfo  fupport  the  Printers 
in  any  Thing  the  Committees  mail  defire 
them  to  print. 


a  Warning  to.any  one  that  mall 
affront  as  aforefaid,  upon  fure  Infor- 
mation given,  one  of  thefe  Advertife- 
ments  will  be  potted  up  at  the  Door 
or  Dwelling-Houfe  of  the  Offender. 

HAND-BILL  OF  TRUE  SONS  OF  LIBERTY  ' 

it  when  the  bill  passed  to  repeal  the  taxes.  Upon  an 
evening  in  March,  1770,  a  mob  had  attacked  a  squad 
of  the  King's  redcoats  in  King  Street,  pelting  them 
with  sharp  pieces  of  ice  and  whatever  else  they  could 
lay  their  hands  on,  and  daring  them  derisively  to  fire; 
162 


THE  BOSTON   MASSACRE 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

and  the  troops  had  fired,  being  hard  pressed  and  mad- 
dened. Five  of  the  mob  were  killed  and  six  wounded, 
and  a  thrill  of  indignation  and  horror  went  through 
the  excited  town.  The  next  day  a  great  meeting  in 
Faneuil  Hall  sent  a  committee  to  Mr.  Hutchinson,  the 
governor,  to  demand  the  instant  withdrawal  of  the 
troops.  Samuel  Adams  headed  the  committee,  im- 
perious and  on  fire;  told  the  governor,  in  the  council 
chamber  where  they  met,  that  he  spoke  in  the  name 
of  three  thousand  freemen  who  counted  upon  being 
heeded ;  and  won  his  point.  The  troops  were  withdrawn 
to  an  island  in  the  bay.  The  town  had  hated  their 
"lobster  backs"  for  all  the  year  and  a  half  they  had 
been  there,  and  rejoiced  and  was  quiet  when  they  with- 
drew. 

But  quiet  could  not  last  long.  The  flame  was  sure 
somewhere  to  burst  out  again  whenever  any  incident 
for  a  moment  stirred  excitement.  In  North  Carolina 
there  was  the  next  year  a  sudden  blaze  of  open  rebellion 
against  the  extravagant  exactions  of  William  Tryon, 
the  adventurer  who  was  royal  governor  there;  and 
only  blood  extinguished  it  (1771).  In  Rhode  Island, 
in  June,  1772.  his  Majesty's  armed  schooner  Gaspee 
was  taken  by  assault  and  burned,  upon  a  spit  of  land 
where  she  lay  aground.  It  had  been  her  business  to 
watch  against  infringements  of  the  navigation  laws 
and  the  vexatious  acts  of  trade;  her  commander  had 
grown  exceptionally  insolent  in  his  work ;  a  sloop  which 
he  chased  had  led  him  on  to  the  spit,  where  his  schooner 
stuck  fast;  and  the  provincials  took  advantage  of  her 
helplessness  to  burn  her.  No  one  could  be  found  who 
would  inform  on  those  who  had  done  the  bold  thing; 
the  courageous  chief-justice  of  the  little  province  flatly 
164 


AFTER   THE   MASSACRE.         SAMUEL   ADAMS    DEMANDING   OF    GOVERNOR    HUTCH- 
INSON  THE   INSTANT   WITHDRAWAL  OF   BRITISH   TROOPS 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

denied  the  right  of  the  English  authorities  to  order 
the  perpetrators  to  England  for  trial;  and  the  royal 
commission  which  was  appointed  to  look  into  the  whole 
affair  stirred  all  the  colonies  once  more  to  a  deep  ir- 
ritation. The  far-away  House  of  Burgesses  in  Vir- 
ginia very  promptly  spoke  its  mind  again.  It  invited 
the  several  colonies  to  join  Virginia  in  forming  com- 


INTERIOR    OF    COUNCIL    CHAMBER,    OLD    STATE    HOUSE,    BOSTON 

mittees  of  correspondence,  in  order  that  all  might  be 
of  one  mind  and  ready  for  one  action  against  the  ag- 
gressions of  the  government  in  England.  The  min- 
isters in  London  had  meantime  resolved  to  pay  the 
provincial  judges,  at  any  rate  in  Massachusetts,  out 
of  the  English  treasury,  taxes  or  no  taxes;  and  the 
Massachusetts  towns  had  formed  committees  of  cor- 
respondence of  their  own,  as  Mr.  Adams  bade. 
Such  were  the  signs  of  the  times  when  the  final  test 
166 


THE  PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS 

came  of  the  tax  on  tea.  The  East  India  Company 
was  in  straits  for  money.  It  had  to  pay  twelvepence 
into  the  royal  treasury  on  every  pound  of  tea  it  im- 
ported, whether  it  sold  it  in  England  or  not;  but  the 


fi  O.  S  T  0  N,     December     3,     1773. 

WHEREVJ    it    has  1  that  a  Permit  will   be  given   by 

the  Cufb-n-  I  r.ir  to-  I.-,  i  ling  the  Tea  now  on  Board  a  Veffet 
laying  in  th-s  .'hrbjur,  commanded  by  Capt.  HALF,  :  THIS  is 
to  Remind  the  Publi;k,  Hut  it  was  folemnly  voted  by  the 
Body  of  the  People  of  this  and  the  neighbouring  Towns  afT.tr 
Old-South  Mccting-Houfe  on  Tucflay  the  3oth  Day  of  November^  that 
he  faid  Tea  never  fho'j!d  be  landeJ  in  this  Province,  or  pay  one  Farthing 
>f  Duty  :  And  as  the  aiding  or  affixing  in'  procuring,  or  granting  any 
uch  Permit  for  landing  the  faid  Te.i  or  any  other  Tea  fo  circumftanccd, 
or  in  offering  any  Permit  when  obtained  to  the  Matter  or  Commander  of 
he  faid  Ship,  or  any  other  Ship  in-  the  fame  Situation,  mud  betray  a 
inhuman  Third  for  Blood,  and  will  a!fo  in  a  great  Mcafbrc  accelerate  Con- 
"ufon  and  Civil  War  :  This  is  to  jfTurc  fuch  public  Enemies  of  this  Coun- 
try,that  they  will  be  confidcred  and  treated  as  Wretches  unworthy  to  live, 
ind  will  be  nude  the  firft  Viclims  of  cur  jufl  Rcfcntmcnt. 

The     P  E  O  P  L  E. 

j    N.  B.  Captain  Bruce  is  arrived  laden    with  the  fame  dctcftable  Commo^ 

Idity  ;  and  'tis  peremptorily  demanded  of  him,  and  all  concerned,  tha' 
the/  comply  with  th«  fame  Rcquifuionj.  " 


PROTEST  AGAINST   THE  LANDING  OF  TEA 

government  there  offered  to  relieve  it  of  that  tax  on 
every  pound  it  carried  on  to  America,  and  exact  only 
the  threepence  to  be  paid  at  the  colonial  ports  under 
Mr.  Townshend's  act:  so  willing  were  the  King's  min- 
isters to  help  the  Company,  and  so  anxious  also  to  test 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

the  act  and  the  submissiveness  of  the  colonists.  The 
test  was  soon  made.  The  colonists  had  managed  to 
smuggle  in  from  Holland  most  of  the  tea  they  needed; 
and  they  wanted  none,  under  the  circumstances,  from 


ENTRY  JOHN  ADAMS'S  DIARV 

the  East  India  ships,  —  even  though  it  cost  less,  with 
the  twelvepence  tax  off,  than  the  smuggled  tea  obtain- 
ed of  the  Dutch.  The  East  India  Company  promptly 
sent  tea-laden  ships  to  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia, 
and  Charleston  ;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1773  they  began 
to  come  in.  In  Boston  a  quiet  mob,  disguised  as  Ind- 
ians, threw  the  chests  overboard  into  the  harbor.  At 
New  York  and  Philadelphia  the  ships  were  "  permitted  " 
to  leave  port  again  without  landing  their  cargoes.  At 


Monday  Mormn 
HE  TEA-SHIP  being  arrived,  eyi 

-»-  '  to  prdcrve  tin-  Liberty  ofA:ner:- 
S;  A  t  L-Houst,  -Tliii-i  Morning,  pivriiel 
Vile  what  is  bell  to  be  eloiic  ou  uus  til 


CALL   FOR   MEETING   TO    PROTEST   AGAINST   THE   LANDING   OF  TEA 

Charleston  the  tea  was  landed,  but  it  was  stored,  not 
sold,  and  a  public  meeting. saw  to  its  secure  bestowal 
The  experiment  had  failed.  America  was  evidently 
of  one  mind,  and  had  determined  not  to  buy  tea  or  any- 
168 


THE  BOSTON   TEA   PARTY 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

thing  else  with  a  parliamentary  tax  on  it.  The  colonists 
would  no  more  submit  to  Mr.  Townshend's  tax  than 
to  Mr.  Grenville's,  whatever  the  legal  difference  be- 
tween them  might  be,  either  in  principle  or  in  operation. 
The  issue  was  squarely  made  up:  the  colonies  would 
not  obey  the  Parliament,  —  would  be  governed  only 
through  their  own  assemblies.  If  the  ministers  per- 
sisted, there  must  be  revolution. 


Here  the  leading  general  authorities  are  the  histories  of  Ban- 
croft, Hildreth,  and  Bryant ;  but  to  these  we  now  add  David  Ram- 
say's History  of  tJie  American  Revolution  ;  the  fourth  volume  of 
James  Grahame's  excellent  History  of  the  Rise  and  Progress  of 
the  United  States  of  North  America  from  their  Colonization  till 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  Thomas  Hutchinson's  History 
of  Massachusetts,  one  of  the  most  valuable  of  the  contemporary 
authorities ;  John  S.  Barry's  History  of  Massachusetts ;  John 
Fiske's  American  Revolution  ;  Mellen  Chamberlain's  The  Rev- 
olution Impending,  in  the  sixth  volume  of  Winsor's  Narrative 
and  Critical  History  of  America  ;  the  twelfth  chapter  of  W.  E. 
H.  Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  ;  Sir 
J.  R.  Seeley's  Expansion  of  England  ;  Richard  Frothingham's 
Rise  of  the  Republic  of  the  United  States  ;  Mr.  Edward  Channing's 
United  States  of  America,  1765-1865;  Mr.  Henry  Cabot  Lodge's 
Short  History  of  the  English  Colonies  in  America  ;  Mr.  Horace 
E.  Scudder's  Men  and  Manners  in  America  One  Hundred  Years 
Ago  ;  Moses  Coit  Tyler's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry  ;  Mr.  Horace  Gray's 
important  discussion  of  Otis's  speech  against  the  writs  of  assistance, 
in  the  Appendix  to  Quincy's  Reports  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  1761- 
2772 ;  Moses  Coit  Tyler's  Literary  History  of  the  American  Rev- 
olution ;  F.  B.  Dexter's  Estimates  of  Population,  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society ;  and  the  Lives  of  the  leading 
American  and  English  statesmen  of  the  time,  notably  the  invalu- 
able series  of  brief  biographies  known  as  The  American  States- 
men Series. 

Abundant  contemporary  material  may  be  found  in  the  published 
letters,  papers,  and  speeches  of  American  and  English  public 
men  of  the  time,  especially  in  the  pamphlets  of  such  men  as  James 
Otis,  Richard  Bland,  Stephen  Hopkins,  John  Adams,  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Dickinson,  and  their  confreres  ;  in  Franklin's  Auto- 
170 


THE   PARTING   OF   THE  WAYS 

biography  ;  Andrew  Burnaby's  Travels  through  the  Middle  Settle- 
ments in  North  America,  in  the  Years  1759  and  1760 ;  Ann  Maury's 
Memoirs  of  a  Huguenot  Family  ;  and  Hezekiah  Niles's  Principles 
and  Acts  of  the  Revolution  in  America. 

Lists  of  the  authorities  on  the  several  colonies  during  these 
years  may  be  found  in  Edward  Channing  and  Albert  Bushnell 
Hart's  very  convenient  and  careful  little  Guide  to  American  History. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

THE  ministers  did  persist,  and  there  was  revolution. 
Within  less  than  a  year  from  those  memorable  autumn 
days  of  1773  when  the  East  India  Company's  ships 
came  into  port  with  their  cargoes  of  tea,  the  colonies 
had  set  up  a  Congress  at  Philadelphia  which  looked 
from  the  first  as  if  it  meant  to  do  things  for  which  there 
was  no  law ;  and  which  did,  in  fact,  within  less  than 
two  years  after  its  first  assembling,  cut  the  bonds  of 
allegiance  which  bound  America  to  England.  The 
colonists  did  not  themselves  speak  or  think  of  it  as  a 
body  set  up  to  govern  them,  or  to  determine  their  re- 
lations with  the  government  at  home,  but  only  as  a 
body  organized  for  consultation  and  guidance,  a  general 
meeting  of  their  committees  of  correspondence.  But  it 
was  significant  how  rapidly,  and  upon  how  consistent 
and  executive  a  plan,  the  arrangements  for  "corre- 
spondence" had  developed,  and  how  naturally,  almost 
spontaneously,  they  had  come  to  a  head  in  this  "Con- 
gress of  Committees."  There  were  men  in  the  colonies 
who  were  as  quick  to  act  upon  their  instinct  of  leader- 
ship, and  as  apt  and  masterful  at  organization,  as  the 
English  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  who  had  check- 
mated Charles  I. ;  and  no  doubt  the  thought  of  inde- 
pendent action,  and  even  of  aggressive  resistance, 
172 


ITILHAMJ4CKSO  N, 

an  I MPORT E R\&  the 
BR4ZEN  HE4D, 

North  Side  of  tie  TOWN-HOUSE, 
and  Oppofite  the    Town-Pump,  in 
Corn-hill,    BOSTON. 


It  is  defired  that  the  SONS  and 
DAUGHTERS  of  LIBERfT, 
would  not  buy  any  one  thing  of 
him,  for  in  fo  doing  they  will  bring 
Dilgrace  upon  themfekes,  and  their 
Pofterity,  for  ever  and  ever,  AMEN. 


BOYCOTTING  POSTER 


A  HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

came  more  readily  to  the  minds  of  men  of  initiative  in 
America,  where  all  things  were  making  and  to  be  made, 
than  in  old  England,  where  every  rule  of  action  seemed 
antique  and  venerable.  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  had  been 
deliberately  planning  revolution  in  Massachusetts  ever 
since  1768,  the  year  the  troops  came  to  Boston  to  hold 
the  town  quiet  while  Mr.  Townshend's  acts  strangled 
its  trade;  and  he  had  gone  the  straight  way  to  work 
to  bring  it  about.  He  knew  very  well  how  to  cloak  his 
purpose  and  sedulously  keep  it  hid  from  all  whom  it 
might  shock  or  dismay  or  alienate.  But  the  means 
he  used  were  none  the  less  efficacious  because  those 
who  acted  with  him  could  not  see  how  far  they  led, 

It  was  he  who  had  stood  at  the  front  of  the  opposition 
of  the  Massachusetts  assembly  to  the  Stamp  Act;  he 
who  had  drafted  the  circular  letter  of  Massachusetts 
to  the  other  colonies  in  1768  suggesting  concert  of  action 
against  the  Townshend  acts;  he  who  had  gone  from 
the  town  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  to  demand  of  Hutch- 
inson  the  immediate  removal  ol  the  troops,  after  the 
unhappy  "massacre"'  of  March,  1770;  he  who  had 
led  the  town  meeting  which  took  effectual  measures 
to  prevent  the  landing  of  the  tea  from  the  East  India 
Company's  ships.  No  man  doubted  that  his  hand 
had  been  in  the  plan  to  throw  the  tea  into  the  harbor. 
It  was  he  who,  last  of  all,  as  the  troubles  thickened, 
had  bound  the  other  towns  of  Massachusetts  to  Boston 
in  a  common  organization  for  making  and  propagat- 
ing opinion  by  means  of  committees  of  correspondence. 
It  was  late  in  1772  when  he  proposed  to  the  town  meeting 
in  Boston  that  the  other  towns  of  the  colony  be  invited 
to  co-operate  with  it  in  establishing  committees  of  corre- 
spondence, by  means  of  which  they  could  exchange 
174 


T1 


-i-nor  puiubly  never   Vet  tc 
.roudrntiaU-arcof  that  gncicw  I 

duchu  ih«-  «3:iv  SurLrsoi  this  Country    to  .;!a-!'n!>  .1     . 

from  »'\  ranny  tor  thtmklves  and    tluir  i\;!L:i:v  ':, 

again  wor.d*  r'ul'y  imcrp  Cd    to   biing    (<*>  I  ijn  the   1'Lt   t..i:  had 

bc^n  laid  tor  us  by  our  malicious  and  inli.iiuus  Enemies. 

Our  prefect  Governor  has  been  exerting  rtimf.  If  (as  t!ic  honoraMe~ 
Houfe  of  Afle-ublv  have  txpr..li..l  thcmfclvis  in  thctr  lato  Ut(.-lvls). 
"  by  his  fccrct  confidential  ^  orrcipondencc,  to  introduce  Mcafurcs 
"  dcftruft've  of  our  conftiiutionalLibcrty.  while  he  has  practiced  every 
"  method  among  the  People  of  this  Frovinc  •,  to  fix  in  their  .Minds 
"  an  exalted  Opinion  of  his  vvataeft  Aff  cYion  for  them,  and  his 
"  unrcmitted  Endeavours  to  promote  their  belt  [nterclt.at  the  C'ourt 
"  of  Great  Britain."  This  will  abundantly  appear  by  the  Letters 
and  Refolvcs  which  *e  herewith  tranfmit  to  you  ;  the  feriousPcrufa! 
of  which  will  fiiew  you  your  prefent  moft  dangerous  Situation. 
This  Period  calls  for  the  ftricleft  Concurrence  in  Sentiment  and 
AfHon  of  every  individual  of  this  Province,  and  we  may  add,  of 
THIS  CONTINENT;  ail  private  Views  fhould  be  annihilated,  and 
the  Gopd  of  the  Whole  fliould  be  the  fingle  Object  of  ourl'tufuir  — 
"  By  uniting  we  ftand,"  and  fhall  be  able  to  defeat  the  Invader? 
and  Violaters  of  our  Rights. 

We  are, 

Tour  Fr  tends  and  bumole  Servants, 
Signed  by  Direction  of  thcCgrnmittee  fcrCorrcfpondence  in 


To  the  Town-Clerk  of  ,  to  be  immediately 

delivered  to  the  Committee  of  Correffondetue  for  your  Town, 
iffucb  a  Committee  is  cbofen.  other-Mile  to  the  Gentlemen  the 
•Scleflmen,  to  tc  communicated  to  the  Town. 


CIRCULAR.   OF  THE   BOSTON    COMMITTEE   OF   CORRESPONDENCE 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

views,  and,  if  need  were,  concert  action.  The  end  of 
November  had  come  before  he  could  make  Boston's 
initiative  complete  in  the  matter ;  and  yet  the  few  scant 
weeks  that  remained  of  the  year  were  not  gone  before 
more  than  eighty  towns  had  responded. 

It  turned  out  that  he  had  invented  a  tremendously 
powerful  engine  of  propaganda  for  such  opinions  and 
suggestions  of  action  as  he  chose  to  put  upon  the  wind 
or  set  afloat  in  his  private  correspondence, — as  he  had, 
no  doubt,  foreseen,  with  his  keen  appreciation  of  the 
most  effectual  means  of  agitation.  Here  was,  in  effect, 
a  league  of  towns  to  watch  and  to  control  the  course 
of  affairs.  There  was  nothing  absolutely  novel  in 
the  plan,  except  its  formal  completeness  and  its  ap- 
pearance of  permanence,  as  if  of  a  standing  political 
arrangement  made  out  of  hand.  In  the  year  1765, 
which  was  now  seven  years  gone  by,  Richard  Henry 
Lee  had  taken  an  active  part  among  his  neighbors  in 
Virginia  in  forming  the  "Westmoreland  Association," 
which  drew  many  of  the  leading  spirits  of  the  great 
county  of  Westmoreland  together  in  concerted  resist- 
ance to  the  Stamp  Act.  Four  years  later  (1769)  the 
Burgesses  of  Virginia,  cut  short  in  their  regular  session 
as  a  legislature  by  a  sudden  dissolution  proclaimed 
by  their  royal  governor,  met  in  Mr.  Anthony  Hay's 
house  in  Williamsburg  and  adopted  the  resolutions  for 
a  general  non- importation  association  which  George 
Mason  had  drawn  up,  and  which  George  Washington, 
Mr.  Mason's  neighbor  and  confidant,  read  and  moved. 
There  followed  the  immediate  organization  of  local 
associations  throughout  the  little  commonwealth  to 
see  to  the  keeping  of  the  pledge  there  taken.  Virginia 
had  no  town  meetings;  each  colony  took  its  measures 
176 


NORTH  AMERICA   175O,   SHOWING   CLAIMS 
ARISING-  OUT  OF   EXPLORATION. 


GEORGE  III. 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

of  non  -  importation  and  resistance  to  parliamentary 
taxation  after  its  own  fashion ;  but  wherever  there  were 
Englishmen  accustomed  to  political  action  there  was 
always  this  thought  of  free  association  and  quick  and 
organized  cooperation  in  the  air,  which  no  one  was 
surprised  at  any  time  to  see  acted  upon  and  made  an 
instrument  of  agitation. 

What  made  the  Massachusetts  committees  of  corre- 
spondence especially  significant  and  especially  telling 
in  their  effect  upon  affairs  was  that  they  were  not  used, 
like  the  "Westmoreland  Association"  or  the  non-im- 
portation associations  of  1769,  merely  as  a  means  of 
keeping  neighbors  steadfast  in  the  observance  of  a 
simple  resolution  of  passive  resistance,  but  were  em- 
ployed to  develop  opinion  and  originate  action  from 
month  to  month, — dilatory,  defensive,  or  aggressive,  as 
occasion  or  a  change  of  circumstances  might  demand. 
The  non-importation  associations  had  been  powerful 
enough,  as  some  men  had  reason  to  know.  The  de- 
termination not  to  import  or  use  any  of  the  things 
upon  which  Parliament  had  laid  a  tax  to  be  taken  of 
the  colonies, — wine,  oil,  glass,  paper,  tea,  or  any  of  the 
rest  of  the  list, — was  not  a  thing  all  men  had  thought 
of  or  spontaneously  agreed  to.  Certain  leading  gentle- 
men, like  Mr.  Mason  and  Colonel  Washington,  deemed 
it  a  serviceable  means  of  constitutional  resistance  to 
the  mistaken  course  of  the  ministry,  induced  influential 
members  of  the  House  of  Burgesses  to  indorse  it,  and 
formed  associations  to  put  it  into  effect, — to  see  to  it 
that  no  one  drank  wine  or  tea  which  had  been  brought 
in  under  Mr.  Townshend's  taxes.  There  was  here 
no  command  of  law, — only  a  moral  compulsion,  the 
"  pressure  of  opinion  " ;  but  it  was  no  light  matter  to  be 
178 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

censured  and  talked  about  by  the  leading  people  in 
your  county  as  a  person  who  defied  the  better  sort  of 
opinion  and  preferred  wine  and  tea  to  the  liberties  of 


GEORGE  MASON 


the  colony.  Associated  opinion,  spoken  by  influential 
men,  proved  a  tremendous  engine  of  quiet  duress,  and 
the  unwilling  found  it  prudent  to  conform.  It  was 
harder  yet  for  the  timid  where  active  committees  of 
179 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

correspondence  looked  into  and  suggested  opinion. 
Men  could  give  up  their  wine,  or  women  their  tea,  and 
still  keep  what  opinions  they  pleased;  but  committees 
of  correspondence  sought  out  opinion,  provoked  dis- 
cussion, forced  men  to  take  sides  or  seem  indifferent; 
more  than  all,  saw  to  it  that  Mr.  Samuel  Adams's  opin- 
ions were  duly  promulgated  and  established  by  ar- 
gument. 

Men  thought  for  themselves  in  Massachusetts,  and 
Mr.  Adams  was  too  astute  a  leader  to  seem  to  force 
opinions  upon  them.  He  knew  a  better  and  more  cer- 
tain way.  He  drew  Mr.  Hutchinson,  the  governor,  into 
controversy,  and  provoked  him  to  unguarded  heat  in 
the  expression  of  his  views  as  to  the  paramount  author- 
ity of  Parliament  and  the  bounden  duty  of  the  colonists 
to  submit  if  they  would  not  be  accounted  rebels.  He 
let  heat  in  the  governor  generate  heat  in  those  who 
loved  the  liberty  of  the  colony;  supplied  patriots  .with 
arguments,  phrases,  resolutions  of  right  and  privilege; 
watchfully  kept  the  fire  alive;  forced  those  who  were 
strong  openly  to  take  sides  and  declare  themselves, 
and  those  who  were  weak  to  think  with  their  neighbors ; 
infused  agitation,  disquiet,  discontent,  dissonance  of 
opinion  into  the  very  air;  and  let  everything  that  was 
being  said  or  done  run  at  once  from  town  to  town  through 
the  ever  talkative  committees  of  correspondence.  He 
sincerely  loved  the  liberty  to  which  America  had  been 
bred;  loved  affairs,  and  wanted  nothing  for  himself, 
except  the  ears  of  his  neighbors;  loved  the  air  of  strife 
and  the  day  of  debate,  and  the  busy  concert  of  endless 
agitation;  was  statesman  and  demagogue  in  one,  and 
had  now  a  cause  which  even  slow  and  thoughtful  men 
were  constrained  to  deem  just. 
180 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 


The  ministers  supplied  fuel  enough  and  to  spare  to 
keep  alive  the  fires  he  kindled;  and  presently  the  sys- 
tem of  committees  which  he  had  devised  for  the  towns 
of  a  single  colony  had  been  put  into  use  to  bring  the 
several  colonies  themselves  together.  Opinion  began 
to  be  made  and  moved  and  augmented  upon  a  great 
scale.  Spontaneous,  no  doubt,  at  first,  at  heart  spon- 
taneous always,  it  was  elaborately,  skilfully,  persist- 
ently assisted,  added  to,  made  definite,  vocal,  univer- 
sal,— now  under  the  lead  of  men  in  one  colony,  again 
under  the  lead  of  those  in  an- 
other. Massachusetts,  with  her 
busy  port  and  her  noisy  town 
meetings,  drew  the  centre  of  the 
storm  to  herself;  but  the  other 
colonies  were  not  different  in 
temper.  Virginia,  in  particular, 
was  as  forward  as  Massachu- 
setts. Virginia  had  got  a  new 
governor  out  of  England  early 
in  1772,  John  Murray,  Earl  of 
Dunmore,  who  let  more  than  a 

year  go  by  from  his  first  brief  meeting  with  the  Bur- 
gesses before  he  summoned  them  again,  because  he 
liked  their  lack  of  submission  as  little  as  they  liked  his 
dark  brow  and  masterful  temper;  but  he  suffered  them 
to  convene  at  last,  in  March,  1773,  and  they  forthwith 
gave  him  a  taste  of  their  quality,  as  little  to  his  palate 
as  he  could  have  expected. 

It  was  in  June,  1772,  while  the  Virginian  burgesses 

waited  for  their  tardy  summons  to  Williamsburg  that 

his  Majesty's  revenue  cutter  Gaspee  was  deliberately 

boarded  and  burned  by  the  Rhode  Islanders.     The  Bur- 

181 


SEAL   OF   DUNMORE 


£ARL    OF    DUNMORE 


THE   APPROACH   OF   REVOLUTION 

gesses  had  but  just  assembled  in  the  autumn  when  the 
ominous  news  came  that  a  ro3^al  commission  had  been 
sent  over  to  look  sharply  into  the  matter,  and  see  to 
the  arrest  and  deportation  of  all  chiefly  concerned. 
Dabney  Carr,  Patrick  Henry,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  and 
Thomas  Jefferson,  young  men  all,  and  radicals,  mem- 
bers of  the  House,  privately  associated  themselves  for 
the  concert  of  measures  to  be  taken  in  the  common 
cause  of  the  colonies.  Upon  their  initiative  the  Bur- 
gesses resolved,  when  the  news  from  Rhode  Island  came, 
to  appoint  at  once  a  permanent  committee  of  corre- 
spondence; instruct  it  to  inquire  very  particularly  into 
the  facts  about  this  royal  commission;  and  ask  the 
other  colonies  to  set  up  similar  committees,  for  the  ex- 
change of  information  concerning  public  affairs  and 
the  maintenance  of  a  common  understanding  and 
concert  in  action.  By  the  end  of  the  year  Massachu- 
setts, Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and 
South  Carolina  had  adopted  the  suggestion  and  set 
their  committees  to  work. 

Massachusetts,  of  course.  This  was  Mr.  Samuel 
Adams's  new  machinery  of  agitation  upon  a  larger 
scale.  Adams  himself  had  long  cherished  the  wish 
that  there  might  be  such  a  connection  established  be- 
tween the  colonies.  In  the  autumn  of  1770  he  had  in- 
duced the  Massachusetts  assembly  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  correspondence,  to  communicate  with  Mr. 
Arthur  Lee,  of  Virginia,  the  colony's  agent  in  London, 
and  with  the  Speakers  of  the  several  colonial  assem- 
blies; and  though  the  committee  had  accomplished 
little  or  nothing,  he  had  not  been  discouraged,  but  had 
written  the  next  year  to  Mr.  Lee  expressing  the  wish 
that  "  societies  "  of  "  the  most  respectable  inhabitants  " 


THE  ATTACK   ON   THE   "  GASPEE ' 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

might  be  formed  in  the  colonies  to  maintain  a  corre- 
spondence with  friends  in  England  in  the  interest  of 
colonial  privilege.  "This  is  a  sudden  thought/'  he 
said,  "and  drops  undigested  from  my  pen";  but  it 
must  have  seemed  a  natural  enough  thought  to  Mr. 
Lee,  whose  own  vast  correspondence, — with  America, 
with  Englishmen  at  home,  with  acquaintances  on  the 
continent,  —  had  itself,  unaided,  made  many  a  friend 
for  the  colonies  over  sea  at  the  same  time  that  it  kept 
the  leading  men  of  the  colonies  informed  of  the  opinions 
and  the  dangers  breeding  in  England.  But  Mr.  Adams's 
town  committees  came  first.  It  was  left  for  the  little 
group  of  self-constituted  leaders  in  the  Virginian  as- 
sembly, of  whom  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Mr.  Arthur  Lee's 
elder  brother,  \vas  one,  to  take  the  step  which  actual- 
ly drew  the  colonies  into  active  cooperation  when  the 
time  was  ripe.  It  was,  in  part,  through  the  systematic 
correspondence  set  afoot  by  the  Virginian  burgesses 
that  something  like  a  common  understanding  had  been 
arrived  at  as  to  what  should  be  done  when  the  tea  came 
in;  and  the  lawless  defiance  of  the  colonists  in  that 
matter  brought  the  ministers  in  England  to  such  a 
temper  that  there  were  presently  new  and  very  exciting 
subjects  of  correspondence  between  the  committees,  and 
affairs  ran  fast  towards  a  crisis. 

Teas  to  the  value  of  no  less  than  eighteen  thousand 
pounds  sterling  had  been  thrown  into  the  harbor  at 
Boston  on  that  memorable  night  of  the  i6th  of  De- 
cember, 1773,  when  "Captain  Mackintosh,"  the  redoubt- 
able leader  of  the  South  End  toughs  of  the  lively  little 
town,  was  permitted  for  the  nonce  to  lead  his  betters; 
but  what  aroused  the  ministers  and  put  Parliament 
in  a  heat  was  not  so  much  the  loss  incurred  by  the  East 
185 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

India  Company  or  the  outcry  of  the  merchants  involved 
as  the  startling  significance  of  the  act,  and  the  un- 


LORD   NORTH 


pleasant  evidence  which  every  day  came  to  hand  that 

all  the  colonies  alike  were  ready  to  resist.     After  the 

tea  had  been  sent  away,  or  stored  safe  against  sale  or 

186 


THE   APPROACH    OF   REVOLUTION 

present  use,  or  thrown  into  the  harbor,  at  Philadelphia, 
Charleston,  New  York,  and  Boston,  as  the  leaders  of 
the  mobs  or  the  meetings  at  each  place  preferred,  there 
was  an  instant  spread  of  Virginia's  method  of  union. 
Six  more  colonies  hastened  to  appoint  committees  of 
correspondence,  and  put  themselves  in  direct  commu- 
nication with  the  men  at  Boston  and  at  Williamsburg 
who  were  forming  opinion  and  planning  modes  of  re- 
dress. Only  Pennsylvania  held  off.  The  tea  had  been 
shut  out  at  Philadelphia,  as  elsewhere,  but  the  leaders 
of  the  colony  were  not  ready  yet  to  follow  so  fast  in  the 
paths  of  agitation  and  resistance.  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment hardly  noticed  the  exception.  It  was  Boston 
they  thought  of  and  chiefly  condemned  as  a  hot  -  bed 
of  lawlessness.  Not  every  one,  it  is  true,  was  ready 
to  speak  quite  so  plainly  or  so  intemperately  as  Mr. 
Venn.  "The  town  of  Boston  ought  to  be  knocked 
about  their  ears  and  destroyed,"  he  said.  "You  will 
never  meet  with  proper  obedience  to  the  laws  of  this 
country  until  you  have  destroyed  that  nest  of  locusts." 
But,  though  few  were  so  outspoken,  no  doubt  many 
found  such  a  view  very  much  to  their  taste,  excellent- 
ly suited  to  their  temper. 

At  any  rate,  the  ministers  went  a  certain  way  towards 
acting  upon  it.  In  March,  1774,  after  communicating 
to  the  House  the  despatches  from  America,  the  leaders 
of  the  government,  now  under  Lord  North,  proposed 
and  carried  very  drastic  measures.  By  one  bill  they 
closed  the  port  of  Boston,  transferring  its  trade  after 
the  first  of  June  to  the  older  port  of  Salem.  Since  the 
headstrong  town  would  not  have  the  tea,  it  should  have 
no  trade  at  all.  By  another  bill  they  suspended  the 
charter  of  the  colony.  By  a  third  they  made  provision 
187 


THE 

HISTORY 

OF    THE 

COLONY 

OF 

MASSACHUSETS-BAY, 

FROM      THE 
FIRST    SETTLEMENT    THEREOF 

IN    1628. 

UNTIL  ITS  INCORPORATION 
WITH  THE 

Colony  of  PL  I  MOUTH,  Province  of  MAIN,  &Ct 

BY   THE 

Charter  of  King  WILLIAM  and  Queen  MARY. 
IN   1691. 

Hiitoria,  non  oftentaticni,  fed  fide!,  veritatique  compomtur. 
*     Plin.Epift.L.7.E.33.  # 

Yokjl.  (*"l») 

By  MR,  HUTCHINSON, 

Licutenant'Governor  of  the  M  A  s  s  A  c  H  u  s  E  T  s  Prcrince. 


BOSTON,    NEW-ENGLAND: 
Printed  by  THOMAS  &  JOHM  FLEET,  at  the 

in  Ccrnhil],    MDCLLXIV. 

TITLE-PAGE   OF   HUTCHINSON'S   HISTORY 


THE   APPROACH    OF   REVOLUTION 

for  the  quartering  of  troops  within  the  province;  and 
by  a  fourth  they  legalized  the  transfer  to  England  of 
trials  growing  out  of  attempts  to  quell  riots  in  the 
colony.  News  lingered  on  the  seas  in  those  days, 
waiting  for  the  wind,  and  the  critical  news  of  what 
had  been  done  in  Parliament  moved  no  faster  than  the 
rest.  It  was  the  2d  of  June  before  the  text  of  the  new 
statutes  was  known  in  Boston.  That  same  month, 
almost  upon  that  very  day,  Thomas  Hutchinson,  the 
constant-minded  governor  whom  Samuel  Adams  had 
tricked,  hated,  and  beaten  in  the  game  of  politics,  left 
his  perplexing  post  and  took  ship  for  England,  never 
to  return.  Born  and  bred  in  Massachusetts,  of  the 
stock  of  the  colony  itself,  he  had  nevertheless  stood 
steadfastly  to  his  duty  as  an  officer  of  the  crown,  deem- 
ing Massachusetts  best  served  by  the  law.  He  had 
suffered  more  than  most  men  would  have  endured,  but 
his  sufferings  had  not  blinded  him  with  passion.  He 
knew  as  well  as  any  man  the  real  state  of  affairs  in 
the  colony, — though  he  looked  at  them  as  governor, 
not  as  the  people's  advocate, — and  now  went  to  England 
to  make  them  clear  to  the  ministers.  "  The  prevalence 
of  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  government  in  the  planta- 
tion," he  had  already  written  them,  "is  the  natural 
consequence  of  the  great  growth  of  colonies  so  remote 
from  the  parent  state,  and  not  the  effect  of  oppression 
in  the  King  or  his  servants,  as  the  promoters  of  this 
spirit  would  have  the  world  to  believe."  It  would  be 
of  good  omen  for  the  settlement  of  difficulties  if  he  could 
make  the  ministers  see  that  the  spirit  which  so  angered 
them  was  natural,  and  not  born  of  mere  rebellion. 

Mr.   Hutchinson  left  General  Gage  governor  in  his 
stead,  —  at   once   governor   and  military  commander. 
189 


GENERAL  GAGE 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 


Gage  was  to  face  a  season  of  infinite  trouble,  and,  as 
men  soon  learned,  did  not  know  how  to  face  it  either 
with  patience  or  with  tact  and  judgment.  The  news 
of  Boston's  punish- 
ment and  of  the 
suspension  of  the 
Massachusetts  char- 
ter, of  the  arrange- 
ments for  troops, 
and  of  the  legal  es- 
tablishment of  meth- 
ods of  trial  against 
which  all  had  pro- 
tested,— and,  in  the 
case  of  the  Gaspee 
affair,  successfully 
protested, — had  an 
instant  and  most  dis- 
turbing effect  upon 
the  other  colonies, 
as  well  as  upon 
those  who  were  most 
directly  affected. 
The  ministers  could 
not  isolate  Massa- 
chusetts. They  were 
dealing  with  men 
more  statesmanlike 
than  themselves, 
who  did  not  need  to 

see  their  own  liberties  directly  struck  at  to  recognize  dan- 
ger, though  it  was  not  yet  their  danger.     They  had  pro- 
tested in  the  time  of  the  Stamp  Act,  which  affected 
191 


5TOVE  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  THE  BURGESSES, 
VIRGINIA 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

them  all;  this  time  they  protested  even  more  emphati- 
cally against  measures  aimed  at  Massachusetts  alone. 
What  was  more  significant,  they  had  now  means  at 
hand  for  taking  action  in  common. 

Virginia,  no  doubt,  seemed  to  the  ministers  in  Eng- 
land far  enough  away  from  Massachusetts,  but  her  Bur- 
gesses acted  upon  the  first  news  of  what  Parliament 
was  doing, — a  month  before  the  text  of  the  obnoxious 
acts  had  reached  Boston.  In  May,  1774,  they  ordered 
that  June  1st,  the  day  the  Boston  Port  bill  was  to  go 
into  effect,  be  set  apart  as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer, 
— prayer  that  civil  war  might  be  averted  and  that  the 
people  of  America  might  be  united  in  a  common  cause. 
Dunmore  promptly  dissolved  them  for  their  pains; 
but  they  quietly  assembled  again  in  the  long  room 
of  the  Raleigh  Tavern;  issued  a  call  thence  to  the 
other  colonies  for  a  general  Congress;  and  directed 
that  a  convention,  freely  chosen  by  the  voters  of  the 
colony  as  they  themselves  had  been,  should  assemble 
there,  in  that  same  room  of  the  Raleigh,  on  the  first 
day  of  August  following,  to  take  final  measures  with 
regard  to  Virginia's  part  in  the  common  action  hoped 
for  in  the  autumn.  The  next  evening  they  gave  a 
ball  in  honor  of  Lady  Dunmore  and  her  daughters, 
in  all  good  temper,  as  they  had  previously  arranged 
to  do, — as  if  nothing  had  happened,  and  as  if  to  show 
how  little  what  they  had  done  was  with  them  a  matter 
of  personal  feeling  or  private  intrigue,  how  much  a 
matter  of  dispassionate  duty.  They  had  not  acted 
singularly  or  alone.  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  and 
Massachusetts  herself  had  also  asked  for  a  general 
"Congress  of  Committees."  The  Massachusetts  as- 
sembly had  locked  its  doors  against  the  governor's 
192 


JOHN  APAMS 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

messenger,  sent  to  dissolve  it,  until  it  had  completed 
its  choice  of  a  committee  "to  meet  the  committees  ap- 
pointed by  the  several  colonies  to  consult  together  upon 
the  present  state  of  the  colonies."  It  was  chiefly  be- 
cause Massachusetts  called  that  the  other  colonies 
responded,  but  the  movement  seemed  general,  almost 
spontaneous.  Virginia  and  Massachusetts  sent  their 
real  leaders,  as  the  other  colonies  did;  and  September 
saw  a  notable  gathering  at  Philadelphia, — a  gathering 
from  which  conservatives  as  well  as  radicals  hoped 
to  see  come  forth  some  counsel  of  wisdom  and  accom- 
modation. 

Every  colony  but  Georgia  sent  delegates  to  the  Con- 
gress. Not  all  who  attended  had  been  regularly  elected 
by  the  colonial  assemblies.  The  Virginian  delegates 
had  been  elected  by  Virginia's  August  convention,  a 
body  unknown  to  the  law ;  in  some  of  the  colonies  there 
had  been  no  timely  sessions  of  the  assemblies  at  which 
a  choice  could  be  made,  and  representatives  had  ac- 
cordingly been  appointed  by  their  committees  of  cor- 
respondence, or  elected  directly  by  the  voters  at  the 
town  and  county  voting  places.  But  no  one  doubted 
any  group  of  delegates  real  representatives, — at  any 
rate,  of  the  predominant  political  party  in  their  colony. 
In  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  the  conservatives  had 
had  the  upper  hand,  and  had  chosen  men  who  were 
expected  to  speak  for  measures  of  accommodation  and 
for  obedience  to  law.  In  the  other  colonies,  if  only 
for  the  nonce,  the  more  radical  party  had  prevailed, 
and  had  sent  representatives  who  were  counted  on  to 
speak  unequivocally  for  the  liberties  of  the  colonies, 
even  at  the  hazard  of  uttering  words  and  urging  action 
which  might  seem  revolutionary  and  defiant. 
n.-i3  193 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

It  was  noteworthy  and  significant  how  careful  a 
selection  had  been  made  of  delegates.  No  doubt  the 
most  notable  group  was  the  group  of  Virginians: 
Colonel  Washington;  that  "masterly  man/'  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  as  Mr.  John  Adams  called  him,  as  effective 
in  Philadelphia  as  he  had  been  in  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses ;  Patrick  Henry,  whose  speech  was  so  singularly 
compounded  of  thought  and  fire;  Edmund  Pendleton, 
who  had  read  nothing  but  law  books  and  knew  nothing 
but  business,  and  yet  showed  such  winning  grace  and 
convincing  frankness  withal  in  debate;  Colonel  Har- 
rison, brusque  country  gentleman,  without  art  or  sub- 
terfuge, downright  and  emphatic;  Mr.  Bland,  alert 
and  formidable  at  sixty-four,  with  the  steady  insight 
of  the  lifelong  student;  and  Mr.  Peyton  Randolph, 
their  official  leader  and  spokesman,  whom  the  Congress 
chose  its  president,  a  man  full  of  address,  and  seeming 
to  carry  privilege  with  him  as  a  right  inherited. 
Samuel  Adams  and  John  Adams  had  come  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, with  Mr.  Gushing  and  Mr.  Paine.  South 
Carolina  had  sent  two  members  of  the  Stamp  Act  Con- 
gress of  1765,  Mr.  Christopher  Gadsden  and  Mr.  John 
Rutledge,  with  Mr.  Edward  Rutledge  also,  a  youth 
of  twenty-five,  and  plain  Mr.  Lynch,  clad  in  homespun, 
as  direct  and  sensible  and  above  ceremony  as  Colonel 
Harrison.  Connecticut's  chief  spokesman  was  Roger 
Sherman,  rough  as  a  peasant  without,  but  in  counsel 
very  like  a  statesman,  and  in  all  things  a  hard-headed 
man  of  affairs.  New  York  was  represented  by  Mr. 
John  Jay,  not  yet  thirty,  but  of  the  quick  parts  of  the 
scholar  and  the  principles  of  a  man  of  honor.  Joseph 
Galloway,  the  well-poised  Speaker  and  leader  of  her 
House  of  Assembly,  John  Dickinson,  the  thought- 
194 


THE  APPROACH   OF   REVOLUTION 

ful  author  of  the  famous  "Farmer's  Letters"  of  1768, 
a  quiet  master  of  statement,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Mifflin, 
the  well-to-do  merchant,  represented  Pennsylvania. 


^M^t^t— 


ROGER    SHERMAN 

It  was,  take  it  all  in  all,  an  assembly  of  picked  men, 
fit  for  critical  business. 

Not  that  there  was  any  talk  of  actual  revolution  in 
the  air.     The  seven  weeks'  conference  of  the  Congress 
disclosed  a  nice  balance  of  parties,  its  members  act- 
195 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

ing,  for  the  most  part,  with  admirable  candor  and  in- 
dividual independence.  A  good  deal  was  said  and 
conjectured  about  the  "brace  of  Adamses"  who  led 
the  Massachusetts  delegation,  —  Samuel  Adams,  now 
past  fifty-two,  and  settled  long  ago,  with  subtle  art, 
to  his  life-long  business,  and  pleasure,  of  popular  leader- 
ship, which  no  man  understood  better ;  and  John  Adams, 
his  cousin,  a  younger  man  by  thirteen  years,  at  once 
less  simple  and  easier  to  read,  vain  and  transparent, 
— transparently  honest,  irregularly  gifted.  It  was 
said  they  were  for  independence,  and  meant  to  take 
the  leadership  of  the  Congress  into  their  own  hands. 
But  it  turned  out  differently.  If  they  were  for  inde- 
pendence, they  shrewdly  cloaked  their  purpose;  if  they 
were  ambitious  to  lead,  they  were  prudent  enough  to 
forego  their  wish  and  to  yield  leadership,  at  any  rate 
on  the  floor  of  the  Congress,  to  the  interesting  men  who 
represented  Virginia,  and  who  seemed  of  their  own 
spirit  in  the  affair. 

There  was  a  marked  difference  between  what  the 
Congress  said  aloud,  for  the  hearing  of  the  world,  and 
what  it  did  in  order  quietly  to  make  its  purpose  of  de- 
feating the  designs  of  the  ministers  effective.  At  the 
outset  of  its  sessions  it  came  near  to  yielding  itself  to 
the  initiative  and  leadership  of  its  more  conservative 
members,  headed  by  Joseph  Galloway,  the  trusted 
leader  of  the  Pennsylvanians,  a  stout  loyalist,  but  for 
all  that  a  sincere  patriot  and  thorough-going  advocate 
of  the  legal  rights  of  the  colonies.  He  proposed  a 
memorial  to  the  crown  asking  for  a  confederate  govern- 
ment for  the  colonies,  under  a  legislature  of  their  own 
choosing,  very  like  the  government  Mr.  Franklin  had 
made  a  plan  for  twenty  years  ago  in  the  congress  at 
196 


JOSEPH    GALLOWAY 


VOL       II. —  IS 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Albany;  and  his  suggestion  failed  of  acceptance  by 
only  a  very  narrow  margin  when  put  to  the  vote.  Even 
Edward  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina,  who  spoke  more 
hotly  than  most  men  for  the  liberties  of  the  colonies, 
declared  it  an  "almost  perfect  plan";  and  the  Congress, 
rejecting  it,  substituted  no  other.  It  turned,  rather, 


JOHN   DICKINSON 

to  the  writing  of  state  papers,  and  a  closer  organiza- 
tion of  the  colonies  for  concert  of  action.  Its  committees 
drew  up  an  address  to  the  King,  memorials  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Great  Britain  and  to  the  people  of  British  North 
America,  their  fellow-subjects,  and  a  solemn  declara- 
tion of  rights,  so  earnest,  so  moderate  in  tone,  reasoned 
and  urged  with  so  evident  and  so  admirable  a  quiet 
passion  of  conviction,  as  to  win  the  deep  and  outspoken 
198 


THE  APPROACH   OF   REVOLUTION 

admiration  of  their  friends  in  Parliament  and  stir  the 
pulses  of  liberal-minded  men  everywhere  on  both  sides 
of  the  sea. 

So  much  was  for  the  world.  For  themselves,  they 
ordered  a  closer  and  more  effective  association  through- 
out the  colonies  to  carry  out  the  policy  of  a  rigorous 
non-importation  and  non-consumption  of  certain  classes 
of  British  goods  as  a  measure  of  trade  against  the 
English  government's  policy  of  colonial  taxation.  It 
recommended,  in  terms  which  rang  very  imperative, 
that  in  each  colony  a  committee  should  be  formed  in 
every  town  or  county,  according  to  the  colony's  local 
administrative  organization,  which  should  be  charged 
with  seeing  to  it  that  every  one  within  its  area  of  over- 
sight actually  kept,  and  did  not  evade,  the  non-impor- 
tation agreement;  that  these  committees  should  act 
under  the  direction  of  the  central  committee  of  cor- 
respondence in  each  colony;  and  that  the  several 
colonial  committees  of  correspondence  should  in  their 
turn  report  to  and  put  into  effect  the  suggestions  of 
the  general  Congress  of  Committees  at  Philadelphia. 
For  the  Congress,  upon  breaking  up  at  the  conclusion 
of  its  business  in  October,  resolved  to  meet  again  in 
May  of  the  next  year,  should  the  government  in  Eng- 
land not  before  that  time  accede  to  its  prayers  for  a 
radical  change  of  policy.  Its  machinery  of  surveil- 
lance was  meanwhile  complete.  No  man  could  escape 
the  eyes  of  the  local  committees.  Disregard  of  the 
non-importation  policy  meant  that  his  name  would 
be  published,  and  that  he  would  be  diligently  talked 
about  as  one  who  was  no  patriot.  The  Congress  or- 
dered that  any  colony  which  declined  to  enter  into  the 
new  association  should  be  regarded  as  hostile  to  "the 
199 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

liberties  of  this  country."  Samuel  Adams  himself 
had  not  had  a  more  complete  system  of  surveillance 
or  of  inquisitorial  pressure  upon  individual  conduct 


cx  0*2 /zm 


PEYTON   RANDOLPH 


and  opinion  at  hand  in  his  township  committees  of 
correspondence.  In  the  colonies  where  sentiment  ran 
warm  no  man  could  escape  the  subtle  coercion. 

Such  action  was  the  more  worthy  of  remark  because 
taken  very  quietly,  and  as  if  the  Congress  had  of  course 
200 


THE  APPROACH   OF   REVOLUTION 

the  right  to  lead,  to  speak  for  the  majority  and  com- 
mand the  minority  in  the  colonies,  united  and  acting 
like  a  single  body  politic.  There  was  no  haste,  no 
unusual  excitement,  no  fearful  looking  for  trouble  in 
the  proceedings  of  this  new  and  quite  unexampled  as- 
sembly. On  the  contrary,  its  members  had  minds 
sufficiently  at  ease  to  enjoy  throughout  all  their  busi- 
ness the  entertainments  and  the  attractive  social  ways 
of  the  busy,  well-appointed,  cheerful,  gracious  town, 
the  chief  city  of  the  colonies,  in  which  there  was  so 
much  to  interest  and  engage.  Dinings  were  as  fre- 
quent almost  as  debates,  calls  as  committee  meetings. 
Evening  after  evening  was  beguiled  with  wine  and 
tobacco  and  easy  wit  and  chat.  The  delegates  learned 
to  know  and  understand  each  other  as  men  do  who  are 
upon  terms  of  intimacy ;  made  happy  and  lasting  friend- 
ships among  the  people  of  the  hospitable  place;  drank 
in  impressions  which  broadened  and  bettered  their 
thinking,  almost  as  if  they  had  actually  seen  the  sev- 
eral colonies  with  whose  representatives  they  were  deal- 
ing from  day  to  day;  and  went  home  with  a  cleared 
and  sobered  and  withal  hopeful  vision  of  affairs. 

It  was  well  to  have  their  views  so  steadied.  Events 
moved  fast,  and  with  sinister  portent.  Massachusetts 
could  not  be  still,  and  quickly  forced  affairs  to  an  issue 
of  actual  revolution.  Before  the  Congress  met  again 
her  leaders  had  irrevocably  committed  themselves  to 
an  open  breach  writh  the  government ;  the  people  of  the 
province  had  shown  themselves  ready  to  support  them 
with  extraordinary  boldness;  and  all  who  meant  to 
stand  with  the  distressed  and  stubborn  little  common- 
wealth found  themselves  likewise  inevitably  committed 
to  extreme  measures.  The  Massachusetts  men  not 
201 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

only  deeply  resented  the  suspension  of  their  charter, 
they  denied  the  legal  right  of  Parliament  to  suspend 
it.  On  the  Qth  of  September,  1774,  four  days  after 
the  assembling  of  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia,  dele- 
gates from  Boston  and  the  other  towns  in  Suffolk 
County  in  Massachusetts  had  met  in  convention  and 
flatly  declared  that  the  acts  complained  of,  being  un- 
constitutional, ought  not  to  be  obeyed;  that  the  new 
judges  appointed  under  the  act  of  suspension  ought 
not  to  be  regarded  or  suffered  to  act ;  that  the  collectors 
of  taxes  ought  to  be  advised  to  retain  the  moneys  col- 
lected, rather  than  turn  them  into  General  Gage's  treas- 
ury ;  and  that,  in  view  of  the  extraordinary  crisis  which 
seemed  at  hand,  the  people  ought  to  be  counselled  to 
prepare  for  war, — not,  indeed,  with  any  purpose  of 
provoking  hostilities,  but  in  order,  if  necessary,  to  re- 
sist aggression.  They  declared  also  for  a  provincial 
congress,  to  take  the  place  of  the  legislative  council  of 
their  suspended  charter,  and  resolved  to  regard  the 
action  of  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia  as  law  for  the 
common  action  of  the  colonies. 

It  gave  these  resolutions  very  grave  significance 
that  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia  unhesitatingly  de- 
clared, upon  their  receipt,  that  the  whole  continent 
ought  to  support  Massachusetts  in  her  resistance  to 
the  unconstitutional  changes  in  her  government,  and 
that  any  person  who  should  accept  office  within  the 
province  under  the  new  order  of  things  ought  to  be 
considered  a  public  enemy.  Moreover,  the  Suffolk 
towns  did  not  stand  alone.  Their  temper,  it  seemed, 
was  the  temper  of  the  whole  colony.  Other  towns 
took  action  of  the  same  kind ;  and  before  the  Congress 
at  Philadelphia  had  adjourned,  Massachusetts  had 
202 


WASHINGTON   STOPPING   AT  AN    INN  ON   HIS   WAY   TO   CAiMBRIDGE 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

actually  set  up  a  virtually  independent  provincial 
congress.  General  Gage  had  summoned  the  regular 
assembly  of  the  province  to  meet  at  Salem,  the  new 
capital  under  the  parliamentary  changes,  on  the  5th 
of  October,  but  had  withdrawn  the  summons  as  he 
saw  signs  of  disaffection  multiply  and  his  authority 
dwindle  to  a  mere  shadow  outside  his  military  lines 
at  Boston.  The  members  of  the  assembly  convened, 
nevertheless,  and,  finding  no  governor  to  meet  them, 
resolved  themselves  into  a  provincial  congress  and 
appointed  a  committee  of  safety  to  act  as  the  provi- 
sional executive  of  the  colony.  The  old  government 
was  virtually  dissolved,  a  revolutionary  government 
substituted. 

The  substitution  involved  every  hazard  of  license 
and  disorder.  A  people  schooled  and  habituated  to 
civil  order  and  to  the  daily  practice  of  self-government, 
as  the  people  of  Massachusetts  had  been,  could  not, 
indeed,  suffer  utter  demoralization  or  lose  wholly  and 
of  a  sudden  its  sobriety  and  conscience  in  matters  of 
public  business.  But  it  was  a  perilous  thing  that  there 
was  for  a  time  no  recognized  law  outside  of  the  fortifi- 
cations which  General  Gage  had  thrown  across  Boston 
Neck,  to  defend  the  town  against  possible  attack  from 
its  own  neighbors.  Town  meetings  and  irregular  com- 
mittees took  the  place  of  officers  of  government  in  every 
locality.  The  committees  were  often  self -constituted, 
the  meetings  too  often  disorderly  and  irregularly  sum- 
moned. Everything  fell  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
acted  first;  and  inasmuch  as  the  more  hot-headed  and 
violent  are  always  at  such  times  the  first  to  act,  many 
sober  men  who  would  fain  have  counselled  restraint 
and  prudence  and  the  maintenance  so  far  as  might  be 
204 


THE  APPROACH    OF   REVOLUTION 

of  the  old  order,  were  silenced  or  overridden.  The 
gatherings  at  which  concerted  action  was  determined 
upon  were  too  often  like  mere  organized  mobs.  Men 
too  often  obtained  ascendency  for  the  time  being  who 
had  no  claim  upon  the  confidence  of  their  followers  but 
such  as  came  from  audacity  and  violence  of  passion; 
and  many  things  happened  under  their  leadership 
which  it  was  afterwards  pleasant  to  forget.  No  man 


The     LIBERTY    SONG.       fit  Freedom  .we're  born,  6-c. 


Coq»)«iiftB4feUa0texr»*-at.rt-UMag.    jUdraoftrwrbM  bMiun&ir  LJ-Wr.ty'«  cdt 


jrtB  J«rhS  cUo,    Or -Oil.  >kb  C&nou  A  .  mt .  rl .  «••  BUM.     l.rr«  •**    »,  V.    tort  «U    i,frti  • 


THE   LIBERTY   SONG 


of  consequence  who  would  not  openly  and  actively  put 
himself  upon  the  popular  side  was  treated  with  so  much 
as  toleration.  General  Gage  presently  found  Boston 
and  all  the  narrow  area  within  his  lines  filling  up, 
accordingly,  with  a  great  body  of  refugees  from  the 
neighboring  towns  and  country-sides. 

It  gave  those  who  led  the  agitation  the  greater  con- 
fidence and  the  greater  influence  that  the  ministers  of 
the  churches  were  for  the  most  part  on  their  side.     The 
control  of  Parliament  had  come,  in  the  eyes  of  the  New 
205 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

England  clergy,  to  mean  the  control  also  of  bishops 
and  the  supremacy  of  the  Establishment.  Now,  as  al- 
ways before,  since  the  very  foundation  of  the  colony, 
the  independence  of  their  little  commonwealths  seemed 
but  another  side  of  the  independence  of  their  churches ; 
and  none  watched  the  course  of  government  over  sea 
more  jealously  than  the  Puritan  pastors. 

Not  only  those  who  sided  with  the  English  power 
because  of  fear  or  interest, — place-holders,  sycophants, 
merchants  who  hoped  to  get  their  trade  back  through 
favor,  weak  men  who  knew  not  which  side  to  take  and 
thought  the  side  of  government  in  the  long  run  the 
safer,  —  but  many  a  man  of  dignity  and  substance 
also,  and  many  a  man  of  scrupulous  principle  who 
revered  the  ancient  English  power  to  which  he  had 
always  been  obedient  with  sincere  and  loyal  affection, 
left  his  home  and  sought  the  protection  of  Gage's  troops. 
The  vigilance  of  the  local  committees  effectually  purged 
the  population  outside  Boston,  as  the  weeks  went  by, 
of  those  who  were  not  ready  to  countenance  a  revolu- 
tion. There  was,  besides,  something  very  like  military 
rule  outside  Boston  as  well  as  within  it.  The  provincial 
congress  met,  while  necessary,  from  month  to  month, 
upon  its  own  adjournment,  and,  prominent  among 
other  matters  of  business,  diligently  devoted  itself  to 
the  enrolment  and  organization  of  a  numerous  and 
efficient  militia.  Local  as  well  as  general  command- 
ers were  chosen ;  there  was  constant  drilling  on  village 
greens;  fire-arms  and  ammunition  were  not  difficult 
to  get ;  and  an  active  militia  constituted  a  very  effective 
auxiliary  in  the  consolidation  of  local  opinion  concern- 
ing colonial  rights  and  the  proper  means  of  vindicating 
them. 

206 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

It  is  the  familiar  story  of  revolution:  the  active  and 
efficient  concert  of  a  comparatively  small  number  con- 
trolling the  action  of  whole  communities  at  a  moment 
of  doubt  and  crisis.  There  was  not  much  difference 
of  opinion  among  thoughtful  men  in  the  colonies  with 
regard  to  the  policy  which  the  ministers  in  England 
had  recently  pursued  respecting  America.  It  was 
agreed  on  all  hands  that  it  was  unprecedented,  unwise, 
and  in  plain  derogation  of  what  the  colonists  had  time 
out  of  mind  been  permitted  to  regard  as  their  unques- 
tioned privileges  in  matters  of  local  self-government. 
Some  men  engaged  in  trade  at  the  colonial  ports  had, 
it  is  true,  found  the  new  policy  of  taxation  and  enforced 
restrictions  very  much  to  their  own  interest.  The 
Sugar  Act  of  1733,  which  cut  at  the  heart  of  the  New 
England  trade  with  the  French  West  Indies,  and  which 
Grenville  and  Townshend  had,  in  these  last  disturbing 
years,  tried  to  enforce,  had,  it  was  said,  been  passed 
in  the  first  instance  at  the  suggestion  of  a  Boston  mer- 
chant who  was  interested  in  sugar  growing  in  the  British 
islands  whence  the  act  virtually  bade  the  colonial  im- 
porters take  all  their  sugar,  molasses,  and  rum;  and 
no  doubt  there  were  many  in  all  the  American  ports 
who  would  have  profited  handsomely  by  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  law.  But,  however  numerous  these  may 
have  been,  they  were  at  most  but  a  small  minority. 
For  a  vast  majority  of  the  merchants  the  enforcement 
of  the  acts  meant  financial  ruin.  Merchants  as  well 
as  farmers,  too,  were  hotly  against  taxes  put  upon 
them  in  their  own  ports  by  an  act  of  Parliament. 
They  were  infinitely  jealous  of  any  invasion  of  their 
accustomed  rights  of  self-government  under  their  re- 
vered and  ancient  charter.  Governor  Hutchinson  him- 
207 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

self,  though  he  deemed  the  commands  of  Parliament 
law,  and  thought  it  his  own  bounden  duty  as  an  officer 
of  the  crown  to  execute  them,  declared  in  the  frankest 
fashion  to  the  ministers  themselves  that  their  policy 
was  unjust  and  mistaken. 

But,  while  men's  sentiments  concurred  in  a  sense  of 
wrong,  their  judgments  parted  company  at  the  choice 
of  what  should  be  done.  Men  of  a  conservative  and 
sober  way  of  thinking ;  men  of  large  fortune  or  business, 
who  knew  what  they  had  at  stake  should  disorders 
arise  or  law  be 'set  aside;  men  who  believed  that  there 
were  pacific  ways  of  bringing  the  government  to  an- 
other temper  and  method  in  dealing  with  the  colonies, 
and  who  passionately  preferred  the  ways  of  peace  to 
ways  of  violence  and  threatened  revolution,  arrayed 
themselves  instinctively  and  at  once  against  every 
plan  that  meant  lawlessness  and  rebellion.  They 
mustered  very  strong  indeed,  both  in  numbers  and  in 
influence.  They  bore,  many  of  them,  the  oldest  and 
most  honored  names  of  the  colony  in  Massachusetts, 
where  the  storm  first  broke,  and  were  men  of  substance 
and  training  and  schooled  integrity  of  life,  besides. 
Their  counsels  of  prudence  were  ignored,  nevertheless, 
—as  was  inevitable.  Opinion  formed  itself  with  quick 
and  heated  impulse  in  the  brief  space  of  those  first 
critical  months  of  irritation  and  excitement;  and  these 
men,  though  the  natural  leaders  of  the  colony,  were 
despised,  rejected,  proscribed,  as  men  craven  and  lack- 
ing the  essential  spirit  either  of  liberty  or  of  patriotism. 

It  was,  no  doubt,  a  time  when  it  was  necessary  that 

something  should  be  done, — as  well  as  something  said. 

It  was  intolerable  to  the  spirit  of  most  of  the  people, 

when  once  they  were  roused,  to  sit  still  under  a  siis- 

208 


THE    Ai'PKOACH    OF   REVOLUTION 

pension  of  their  charter,  a  closing  of  their  chief  port, 
the  appointment  of  judges  and  governors  restrained 
by  none  of  the  accustomed  rules  of  public  authority 
among  them,  and  tamely  utter  written  protests  only, 
carrying  obedience  to  what  seemed  to  them  the  length 
of  sheer  servility.  It  happened  that  there  had  gone 
along  with  the  hateful  and  extraordinary  parliamen- 
tary measures  of  1774  an  act  extending  the  boundaries 
of  the  province  of  Quebec  to  the  Ohio  River  and  es- 
tablishing an  arbitrary  form  of  government  within 
the  extended  province.  It  was  a  measure  long  ago 
planned.  Its  passage  at  that  time  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  ministers'  quarrel  with  the  self-governing  col- 
onies to  the  southward.  But  it  was  instantly  inter- 
preted in  America  as  an  attempt  to  limit  the  westward 
expansion  of  the  more  unmanageable  colonies  which, 
like  Massachusetts,  arrogated  the  right  to  govern  them- 
selves ;  and  it  of  course  added  its  quota  of  exasperation 
to  the  irritations  of  the  moment.  It  seemed  worse  than 
idle  to  treat  ministers  who  sent  such  a  body  of  revolu- 
tionary statutes  over  sea  as  reasonable  constitutional 
rulers  who  could  be  brought  to  a  more  lawful  and  mod- 
erate course  by  pamphlets  and  despatches  and  public 
meetings,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  slow  machinery  of 
ordinary  agitation.  Of  course,  too,  Samuel  Adams 
and  those  who  acted  \vith  him  very  carefully  saw  to  it 
that  agitation  should  not  lose  its  zest  or  decline  to  the 
humdrum  levels  of  ordinary  excitement.  They  kept 
their  alarm  bells  pealing  night  and  day,  and  were 
vigilant  that  feeling  should  not  subside  or  fall  tame. 
And  they  worked  upon  genuine  matter.  They  knew 
the  temper  of  average  men  in  the  colony  much  better 
than  their  conservative  opponents  did,  and  touched 

H.-M  209 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

it  with  a  much  truer  instinct  in  their  appeals.  Their 
utterances  went  to  the  quick  with  most  plain  men, — 
and  they  spoke  to  a  community  of  plain  men.  The}^ 
spoke  to  conviction  as  well  as  to  sentiment,  and  the 
minds  they  touched  were  thoroughly  awakened.  Their 
doctrine  of  liberty  was  the  ancient  tradition  of  the  colony. 
The  principles  they  urged  had  been  urged  again  and 
again  by  every  champion  of  the  chartered  liberties  of 
the  colonies,  and  seemed  native  to  the  very  air. 


SIGNATURE   OK  JOSEPH    HAWLEY 

If  not  constitutional  statesmen,  they  were  at  least 
the  veritable  spokesmen  of  all  men  of  action,  and  of 
the  real  rank  and  file  of  the  colonists  about  them, — 
as  Patrick  Henry  was  in  Virginia.  John  Adams  had 
read  to  Henry,  while  the  first  Congress  was  sitting  in 
Philadelphia,  Joseph  Hawley's  opinion  that  what  the 
ministers  had  done  made  it  necessary  to  fight.  "I 
am  of  that  man's  opinion,"  cried  the  high-spirited  Vir- 
ginian. That  was  what  men  said  everywhere,  unless 
imperatively  held  back  from  action  by  temperament, 
or  interest,  or  an  unusual,  indomitable  conviction  of 
law-abiding  duty,  upon  whatever  exigency  or  provoca- 
tion. It  is  not  certain  that  there  could  be  counted  in 
Massachusetts  so  much  as  a  majority  for  resistance 
in  those  first  days  of  the  struggle  for  right;  but  it  is 
certain  that  those  who  favored  extreme  measures  had 
the  more  effective  spirit  of  initiative  among  them, 
the  best  concert  of  action,  the  more  definite  purpose, 
210 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

the  surest  instinct  of  leadership,  and  stood  with  true 
interpretative  insight  for  the  latent  conviction  of  right 
which  underlay  and  supported  every  colonial  charter 
in  America. 

And  not  only  every  colonial  charter,  but  the  con- 
stitution of  England  itself.  The  question  now  raised, 
to  be  once  for  all  settled,  was,  in  reality,  the  question 
of  constitutional  as  against  personal  government; 
and  that  question  had  of  late  forced  itself  upon  men's 
thoughts  in  England  no  less  than  in  America.  It 
was  the  burden  of  every  quiet  as  well  as  of  every  im- 
passioned page  in  Burke's  Thoughts  on  the  Present 
Discontents,  published  in  1770.  The  Parliament  of 
1774  did  not  represent  England  any  more  than  it  rep- 
resented the  colonies  in  America,  either  in  purpose 
or  principle.  So  ill  distributed  was  the  suffrage  and 
the  right  of  representation  that  great  centres  of  popula- 
tion had  scarcely  a  spokesman  in  the  Commons,  while 
little  hamlets,  once  populous  but  now  deserted,  still 
returned  members  who  assumed  to  speak  for  the  coun- 
try. So  many  voters  were  directly  under  the  influence 
of  members  of  the  House  of  Lords,  as  tenants  and  de- 
pendants; so  many  members  of  the  House  of  Lords 
were  willing  to  put  themselves  and  the  seats  which 
they  controlled  in  the  Commons  at  the  service  of  the 
King,  in  return  for  honors  and  favors  received  or  hoped 
for;  so  many  elections  to  the  Lower  House  were  cor- 
ruptly controlled  by  the  court, — so  full  was  Parliament, 
in  short,  of  placemen  and  of  men  who  counted  upon 
the  crown's  benefactions,  that  the  nation  seemed  ex- 
cluded from  its  own  councils,  and  the  King  acted  as 
its  master  without  serious  let  or  hinderance. 

The  Whig  party,  which  stood  for  constitutional 
211 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

privilege,  was  utterly  disorganized.  Some  Whigs  had 
followed  Chatham  to  the  end,  despite  his  uncertain 
temper,  his  failing  health,  his  perverse  treatment  of 
his  friends;  some  had  followed,  rather,  the  Marquis 
of  Rockingham,  whose  brief  tenure  of  power,  in  1766, 
had  been  but  long  enough  to  effect  the  repeal  of  the 
odious  Stamp  Act;  but  nothing  could  hold  the  diver- 
gent personal  elements  of  the  party  together,  and  there 
was  no  place  for  a  party  of  principle  and  independence 
in  an  unrepresentative  Parliament  packed  with  the 
"King's  friends."  Ministries  rose  or  fell  according 
to  the  King's  pleasure,  and  were  Whig  or  Tory  as  he 
directed,  without  change  of  majority  in  the  Commons. 
"  Not  only  did  he  direct  the  minister  "  whom  the  House 
nominally  obeyed  "  in  all  matters  of  foreign  and  domes- 
tic policy,  but  he  instructed  him  as  to  the  management 
of  debates  in  Parliament,  suggested  what  motions 
should  be  made  or  opposed,  and  how  measures  should 
be  carried."  The  Houses  were  his  to  command;  and 
when  Chatham  was  gone,  no  man  could  withstand  him. 
Persons  not  of  the  ministry  at  all,  but  the  private  and 
irresponsible  advisers  of  the  King,  became  the  real 
rulers  of  the  country.  The  Duke  of  Grafton,  who  be- 
came the  nominal  head  of  the  government  in  1768, 
was  not  his  own  master  in  what  he  did  or  proposed; 
and  Lord  North,  who  succeeded  him  in  1770,  was  little 
more  than  the  King's  mouthpiece. 

Thoughtful  men  in  England  saw  what  all  this  meant, 
and  deemed  the  liberties  of  England  as  much  jeoparded 
as  the  liberties  of  America.  And  the  very  men  who 
saw  to  the  heart  of  the  ominous  situation  in  England 
were,  significantly  enough,  the  men  who  spoke  most 
fearlessly  and  passionately  in  Parliament  in  defence 
212 


THE  APPROACH    OF   REVOLUTION 

of  America,  —  statesmen  like  Chatham  and  Burke, 
frank  soldiers  like  Colonel  Barre,  political  free  lances 
like  the  reckless  John  Wilkes,  and  all  the  growing 
compaii}7  of  agitators  in  London  and  elsewhere  whom 
the  government  busied  itself  to  crush.  It  was  the 
group  gathered  about  Wilkes  in  London  who  formed, 
under  Home  Tooke's  leadership,  the  famous  "Society 
for  supporting  the  Bill  of  Rights/'  with  which  Samuel 
Adams  proposed,  in  his  letter  to  Arthur  Lee  in  1771, 
that  similar  societies,  to  be  formed  in  the  several  col- 
onies in  America,  should  put  themselves  in  active 
cooperation  by  correspondence.  Those  who  attacked 
the  prerogative  in  England  were  as  roundly  denounced 
as  traitors  as  those  who  resisted  Parliament  in  America. 
Wilkes  was  expelled  from  the  House  of  Commons; 
the  choice  of  the  Westminster  electors  who  had  chosen 
him  was  arbitrarily  set  aside  and  annulled;  those  who 
protested  with  too  much  hardihood  were  thrown  into 
prison  or  fined.  But  each  arbitrary  step  taken  seemed 
only  to  increase  the  rising  sense  of  uneasiness  in  the 
country.  The  London  mob  was  raised;  rioting  spread 
through  the  country,  till  there  seemed  to  be  chronic 
disorder ;  writers  like  "  Junius  "  sprang  up  to  tease  the 
government  with  stinging  letters  which  no  one  could 
successfully  answer,  because  no  one  could  match  their 
wit  or  point;  an  independent  press  came  almost  sud- 
denly into  existence;  and  because  there  was  no  opinion 
expressed  in  the  House  of  Commons  worthy  of  being 
called  the  opinion  of  the  nation,  public  opinion  formed 
and  asserted  itself  outside  the  Houses,  and  began  to 
clamor  uncomfortably  for  radical  constitutional  re- 
forms. Mr.  Wilkes  was  expelled  the  House  in  1769, 
just  as  the  trouble  in  America  was  thickening  towards 

VOL.     H.-X6 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 


THE    HOUSE    OF    COMMONS 


storm;  and  long  before  that  trouble  was  over  it  had 
become  plain  to  every  man   of  enlightened  principle 
that  agitation  in  England  and  resistance  in  America 
had  one  and  the  same  object, — the  rectification  of  the 
whole  spirit  and  method  of  the  English  government. 
George  III.  had  too  small  a  mind  to  rule  an  empire, 
214 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

and  the  fifteen  years  of  his  personal  supremacy  in  af- 
fairs (1768-1783)  were  years  which  bred  a  revolution 
in  England  no  less  inevitably  than  in  America.  His 
stubborn  instinct  of  mastery  made  him  dub  the  col- 
onists "rebels"  upon  their  first  show  of  resistance; 
he  deemed  the  repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act  a  fatal  step  of 
weak  compliance,  which  had  only  "increased  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  Americans  to  absolute  independence." 
Chatham  he  called  a  "trumpet  of  sedition"  because 
he  praised  the  colonists  for  their  spirited  assertion  of 
their  rights.  The  nature  of  the  man  was  not  sinister. 
Neither  he  nor  his  ministers  had  any  purpose  of  mak- 
ing "slaves"  of  the  colonists.  Their  measures  for 
the  regulation  of  the  colonial  trade  were  incontestably 
conceived  upon  a  model  long  ago  made  familiar  in 
practice,  and  followed  precedents  long  ago  accepted 
in  the  colonies.  Their  financial  measures  were  moder- 
ate and  sensible  enough  in  themselves,  and  were  con- 
ceived in  the  ordinary  temper  of  law-making.  What 
they  did  not  understand  or  allow  for  was  American 
opinion.  What  the  Americans,  on  their  part,  did  not 
understand  or  allow  for  was  the  spirit  in  which  Par- 
liament had  in  fact  acted.  They  did  not  dream  with 
how  little  comment  or  reckoning  upon  consequences, 
or  how  absolutely  without  any  conscious  theory  as  to 
power  or  authority,  such  statutes  as  those  which  had 
angered  them  had  been  passed;  how  members  of  the 
Commons  stared  at  Mr.  Burke's  passionate  protests 
and  high-pitched  arguments  of  constitutional  privilege; 
how  unaffectedly  astonished  they  were  at  the  rebellious 
outbreak  which  followed  in  the  colonies.  And,  because 
they  were  surprised  and  had  intended  no  tyranny, 
but  simply  the  proper  government  of  trade  and  the 
215 


f**.*^   <***,<.  •'At^./Litw^^   . .,  .^  ^.^  . "A!-,.. 


3 

x//7    «kf  //'<•/»'     ^yij^jax  X  /•    '.-'/X   x , 

^^;\...  A-^  /^ 

"  '    '•  -     X 


PAGE    FROM   THE    DIARY    OF   JOSIAH    QUINCY 


THE  APPROACH    OF   REVOLUTION 

adequate  support  of  administration  throughout  the 
dominions  of  the  crown,  as  the  ministers  had  repre- 
sented these  things  to  them,  members  of  course  thought 
the  disturbances  at  Boston  a  tempest  in  a  teapot,  the 
reiterated  protests  of  the  colonial  assemblies  a  pretty 
piece  of  much  ado  about  nothing.  The  radical  trouble 
was  that  the  Parliament  really  represented  nobody 
but  the  King  and  his  "friends,"  and  was  both  ignorant 
and  unreflective  upon  the  larger  matters  it  dealt  with. 

It  was  the  more  certain  that  the  promises  of  accom- 
modation and  peaceful  constitutional  reform  which 
the  supporters  of  the  government  in  America  so  freely 
and  earnestly  made  would  be  falsified,  and  that  ex- 
asperation would  follow  exasperation.  The  loyal  par- 
tisans of  the  crown  in  the  colonies  understood  as  little 
as  did  the  radical  patriotic  party  the  real  attitude  and 
disposition  of  the  King  and  his  ministers.  The  men 
with  whom  they  were  dealing  over  sea  had  not  con- 
ceived and  could  not  conceive  the  American  point  of 
view  with  regard  to  the  matters  in  dispute.  They 
did  not  know  whereof  Mr.  Burke  spoke  when  he  told 
them  that  the  colonial  assemblies  had  been  suffered 
to  grow  into ,  a  virtual  independence  of  Parliament, 
and  had  become  in  fact,  whatever  lawyers  might  say, 
coordinated  with  it  in  every  matter  which  concerned 
the  internal  administration  of  the  colonies;  and  that 
it  was  now  too  late  to  ask  or  expect  the  colonists  to 
accept  any  other  view  of  the  law  than  that  which 
accorded  with  long  -  established  fact.  Mr.  Burke  ad- 
mitted that  his  theory  was  not  a  theory  for  the  strict 
lawyer:  it  was  a  theory  for  statesmen,  for  whom  fact 
must  often  take  precedence  of  law.  But  the  men  he 
addressed  were  strict  legists  and  not  statesmen.  There 
217 


By    the     KING, 

PROCLAMATION, 

For  luppfeffing  Rebellion  and  Sedition. 


t?  E  O  R  G  E    R. 


HERE  AS  many  of  Our  Subjects  in  divers  Parti  of  Our  Colonies  and  Plantations 
in  North  America,  milled  by  'dangerous  and  iil-defigning  Men,  and  forgetting 
the  Allegiance  which  they  owe  to  the  Power  that  has  protected  and  iuftained 
them,  after  various  difbrderly  Acts  committed  in  Difturbance  of  the  Publick 
Peace,  to  the  Obftruftion  of  lawful  Commerce;  and  to  the  Oppreffion  of  Our 
loyal  Subjects  carrying  on  the  fame,  have  at  length  prececded  to  an  open  and 
avowed  Rebellion,  by  arraying  thcmfclves  in  hottile  Manner  to  withftand  the 
Execution  of  the  Law,  a;id  traitoro::fly  preparing,  ordering,  and  levying  War 
againft  Us-  And  whereas  th£r-  J"  Reafervjtr.  aninAcau'  t/.at  luch  Rebellion  hsth 
jcen  iiiucA  promoted  a irf  encouraged  by  the  iraitprous  Correfpondencc,  Ccfunfcls,  and  Comfort  of 
divers  wicked  and  uuperate  Perions  within  r.his  Realm  :  To  tlic  End  therefore  that  none  of  Our  Subiecls 
may  ncglcft  or  violate  their  Duty  through  Ignora.icc  thereof,  or  through  any  Doubt  of  the  Protection 
which  the  Law  will  afford  to  their  Loyalty  and  Zeal;  We  have  thought  fit,  by  and  with  the  Advice  of 
)ur  Privy  Council,  to  iflue  this  Our  Royal  Proclamation,  hereby -declaring  that  not  only  all  Our 
Officers  Civil  and  Military  arc  obliged  to  exert  their  utmoft  Endeavours  to  fupprcli  fuch  Rebellion,  and 
o  bring  the  Traitors  to  Juftice ;  but  that  all  Our  Suljjccls  of  this  Realm  and  the  Dominions  thereunto 
J€lonj>ing  are  bound  by  Law  to  be  aiding  and  alfillihg  in  the  Suppreflion  ofjuch  Rebellion,  and  to 
difcloie  and  make  kno-vn  all  traitorous  Conlbiracics  and  Attempts  ar-ainft  Us,  Our  Crown  and  Dignity; 
And  We  do  accordingly  ftrictly  charge  and  command  all  Our  Officers  as  well  Civil  as  Military, 
nd  all  other  Our  obedient  and  loyal  Subjects,  to  u!e  their  utinoft  Kndeavours  to  withftand  and 
upprefs  fuch  Rebellion,  and  to  difclofc  and  moke  known  all  Treaibns  and  traitorous  Confpi- 
acics  which  they  (hall  know  to  be  againft  Us,  Our  Crown  and  Dignity ;  and  for  that  Purpofe, 
*iat  they  tranfmit  to  One  of  Our  Principal  Secretaries  of  State,  or  other  proper  Officer,  due  'and 
ull  Information  of  all  Perfons  who  (hall  be  found  carrying  on  Correlpondcnce  with,  or  in  any 
•fanner  or  Degree  aiding  or  abetting  the  Perfons  now  in  open  Arms  and  Rebellion  againft  Our 
(Jovcrnmcnt  within  any  of  Our  Colonies  and  Plantations  in  North  America,  in  order  to  bring  to 
Condign  Punifhment  the  Authors,  Perpetrators,  and  Abettors  of  fuch  traitorous  Defigns. 

Given  at  Our  Court  at  St.  Jamti's,  the  Twenty-third  Day  of  jfugu]!.    One   thoufand 
fcven  hundred  and  feventy-five,  in  the  Fifteenth  Year  of  Our  Reign. 


God    fave  'the    King. 


LONDON: 

fruited  by  Our  la  Ejr,  *nd  William  Siraban,   Printers  to  the  King's  mod  Excellent  Majefty.     i-'75. 


PROCLAMATION   OF   THE  KING   FOR   THK   SUPPRESSION  OF  THE   REBELLION 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

could  be  no  understanding  between  the  two  sides  of 
the  water;  and  the  loyalists  who  counselled  submis- 
sion, if  only  for  a  time,  to  the  authority  of  the  ministers, 
were  certain  to  be  rejected  among  their  own  people. 
The  spirit  of  American  affairs  was  with  the  patriots, 
and  would  be  with  them  more  and  more  as  the  quarrel 
thickened. 

It  thickened  fast  enough,  and  the  storm  broke  before 
men  were  aware  how  near  it  was.  While  winter  held 
(1774-1775),  affairs  everywhere  grew  dark  and  uneasy, 
not  only  in  Massachusetts,  where  Gage's  troops  waited 
at  Boston,  but  in  every  colony  from  Maine  to  the  Gulf. 
Before  the  end  of  1774  the  Earl  of  Dunmore  reported 
to  the  government,  from  Virginia,  that  every  county 
was  "arming  a  company  of  men  for  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  protecting  their  committees/'  and  that  his  own 
power  of  control  was  gone.  "There  is  not  a  justice 
of  peace  in  Virginia/'  he  declared,  "that  acts  except 
as  a  committee-man  " ;  and  it  gave  him  the  graver  con- 
cern to  see  the  turn  affairs  were  taking  because  "men 
of  fortune  and  pre-eminence  joined  equally  with  the 
lowest  and  meanest"  in  the  measures  resorted  to  to 
rob  him  of  authority. 

To  the  south  and  north  of  Virginia,  counsels  were 
divided.  Those  who  led  against  the  government  in 
North  Carolina  had  good  reason  to  doubt  whether  they 
had  even  a  bare  majority  of  the  people  of  their  colony  at 
their  back.  Every  country-side  in  South  Carolina,  for 
all  Charleston  was  as  hot  as  Boston  against  the  min- 
isters, was  full  of  warm,  aggressive,  out-spoken  sup- 
porters of  the  King's  prerogative.  The  rural  districts 
of  Pennsylvania,  every  one  knew,  were  peopled  with 
quiet  Quakers  whose  very  religion  bade  them  offer  ao 
219 


THE  APPROACH  OF  REVOLUTION 

resistance  even  to  oppressive  power,  and  of  phlegmatic 
Germans  who  cared  a  vast  deal  for  peace  but  very  little 
for  noisy  principles  that  brought  mischief.  Many  a 
wealthy  and  fashionable  family  of  Philadelphia,  more- 
over, was  much  too  comfortable  and  much  too  pleasant- 
ly connected  with  influential  people  on  the  other  side  of 
the  water  to  relish  thoughts  of  breach  or  rebellion.  Vir- 
ginians, it  might  have  seemed,  were  themselves  remote 
enough  from  the  trouble  wrhich  had  arisen  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  keep  them  in  the  cool  air  of  those  who  wait 
and  will  not  lead.  But  they  were  more  in  accord  than 
the  men  of  Massachusetts  itself,  and  as  quick  to  act. 
By  the  close  of  June,  1775,  Charles  Lee  could  write 
from  Williamsburg,  "Never  was  such  vigor  and  con- 
cord heard  of,  not  a  single  traitor,  scarcely  a  silent 
dissentient."  As  the  men  of  the  several  counties  arm- 
ed themselves,  as  if  by  a  common  impulse,  all  turned 
as  of  course  to  Colonel  Washington,  of  Fairfax,  as  their 
natural  commander;  and  no  one  in  Virginia  was  sur- 
prised to  learn  his  response.  "It  is  my  full  intention/' 
he  said,  "  to  devote  my  life  and  fortune  to  the  cause  we 
are  engaged  in."  On  the  20th  of  March,  1775,  the  sec- 
ond revolutionary  convention  of  Virginia  met  at  Rich- 
mond, not  at  Williamsburg;  and  in  it  Mr.  Henry  made 
his  individual  declaration  of  war  against  Great  Britain. 
Older  and  more  prudent  men  protested  against  his  words ; 
but  they  served  on  the  committee  on  the  military  organ- 
ization of  the  colony  for  which  his  resolutions  called, 
and  Virginia  was  made  ready. 

Here  our  general  authorities  are  still  Bancroft,  Hildreth,  and 

Bryant ;  David  Ramsay's  History  of  the  American  Revolution ; 

the  last  volume  of  James  Grahame's  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  United 

States  of  North  America  ;  John  Fiske's  American  Revolution  ; 

221 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

Thomas  Hutchinson's  History  of  Massachusetts ;  John  S.  Barry's 
History  of  Massachusetts;  Richard  Frothingham's  Rise  of  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States ;  Justin  Winsor's  The  Conflict  Pre- 
cipitated, in  the  sixth  volume  of  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical 
History  of  America. ;  and  the  twelfth  chapter  of  W.  E.  H.  Lecky's 
History  of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  To  these  we  now 
add  Frank  Moore's  Diary  of  the  American  Revolution;  George 
Chalmers's  Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Revolt ;  Timothy 
Pitkin's  Political  and  Civil  History  of  the  United  States ;  and  the 
fourth  volume  of  John  Richard  Green's  History  of  the  English 
People.  Here,  also,  the  biographies  of  the  chief  public  men  of  the 
period  must  be  the  reader's  constant  resource  for  a  closer  view  of 
affairs,  particularly  the  Lives  of  such  men  as  John  and  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Dickinson,  Franklin,  Hamilton,  Patrick  Henry, 
John  Jay,  Jefferson,  the  Lees,  George  Mason,  James  Otis,  Timothy 
Pickering,  and  Washington. 

The  chief  sources  that  should  be  mentioned  are  the  Debates  of 
Parliament ;  the  Annual  Register  ;  the  Proceedings  and  Collections 
of  the  Historical  Societies  of  the  original  States;  Peter  Force's 
American  Archives;  Jared  Sparks's  Correspondence  of  the  Rev- 
olution ;  Hezekiah  Niles's  Principles  and  Acts  of  the  Revolution 
in  America;  Copy  of  Letters  sent  to  Great  Britain  by  Thomas 
Hutchinson,  reprinted  in  Franklin  Before  the  Privy  Council; 
P.  0.  Hutchinson's  Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas  Hutchinson  ;  and 
the  published  speeches,  letters,  and  papers  of  the  leading  American 
and  English  statesmen  of  the  time. 


CHAPTER    IV 
THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

THEN,  almost  immediately,  came  the  clash  of  arms. 
General  Gage  would  not  sit  still  and  see  the  country 
round  about  him  made  ready  for  armed  resistance  with- 
out at  least  an  effort  to  keep  control  of  it.  On  the  iQth 
of  April  he  despatched  eight  hundred  men  to  seize  the 
military  stores  which  the  provincials  had  gathered  at 
Concord,  and  there  followed  an  instant  rising  of  the 
country.  Riders  had  sped  through  the  country-side 
during  the  long  night  which  preceded  the  movement  of 
the  troops,  to  give  warning ;  and  before  the  troops  could 
finish  their  errand  armed  men  beset  them  at  almost 
every  turn  of  the  road,  swarming  by  companies  out  of 
every  hamlet  and  firing  upon  them  from  hedge  and 
fence  corner  and  village  street  as  if  they  were  outlaws 
running  the  gauntlet.  The  untrained  villagers  could 
not  stand  against  them  in  the  open  road  or  upon  the 
village  greens,  where  at  first  they  mustered,  but  they 
could  make  every  way-side  covert  a  sort  of  ambush, 
every  narrow  bridge  a  trap  in  which  to  catch  them  at  a 
disadvantage.  Their  return  to  Boston  quickened  to  a 
veritable  rout,  and  they  left  close  upon  three  hundred 
of  their  comrades,  dead,  wounded,  or  prisoners,  behind 
them  ere  they  reached  the  cover  of  their  lines  again. 
The  news  of  their  march  and  of  the  attack  upon  them 
223 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

had  spread  everywhere,  and  in  every  quarter  the  roads 
filled  with  the  provincial  minute  men  marching  upon 
Boston.  Those  who  had  fired  upon  the  troops  and 
driven  them  within  their  lines  did  not  go  home  again ; 


In  'Provincial  Cwgrefi,   rfaffrtotvn,   June   171*1,   17^^. 

7  HERE  AS  the  hoflile  Incur fions  this  Country  is  cxpfi/cd  to,  and 
the  frequent  Alarms  we  may  expeft  jrom  the  Military  (Derations 
cf  our  Enemies,  make  it  necejfary,  that  the  good  People  of  this  Colony  be 
on  their  Guard,  and  prepared,  at  all  Times  to  refijl  their  At  tacks,  and 
to  aid  and  a/ift  their  Brethren  :'  Therefore,. 

ESOiyED,  That  it  be  and  hereby  is  recommended  to  theMiluiaJ 
in  all  Parts  of  this  Colony,  to  hold  themfelves  in  Readihefs  to  march 
at  a  Minute's  Warning,  to  die  Relief  of  any  Place  that  may  be  at- 
tacked, or  to  the  Support  of  outArmy,  with  at  leaft  twenty  Cartridge* 
or  Rounds  of  Powder  and  Baft.  And  to  prevent  all  Onfufion  or 
Delays,  It  is  further  recommended  to  thelnhabitants  of  thisCo!ony,liv-j 

ng  on  the  Seacoafts,  or  withioWenty  Miles  of  them,  that  they  tarry 
thrir  Arms  and  Ammunition  \rkh  them  to  Meeting*  on  the  Sabbath 

nd  other  Days,  when  they  meet  for  public  Worfhip  : Refohed, 

That  all  Vacancies  in  the  feVcral  Regiments  of  Militia,  occasioned 
>y  the  Officers  going  into  the  Army,  or  otherwife;  "be  immediately' 
iilcd  up  :  And  it  is  recommended  to  the  Regiments  where  fuch  Va- 
cancies are,  to  fupply  them  ia  manner  and  form  as  prefcribed  by  t 
Idblutions  of  Congrefs. 

A  trtic  Copy  from  the  Minutes, 
Atteft*  SAMUEL  FREEMAN,  Secr'y, 


NOTICE    TO    MILITIA 


those  who  came  too  late  for  the  fighting  stayed  to  see 
that  there  were  no  more  sallies  from  the  town ;  and  the 
morning  of  the  20th  disclosed  a  small  army  set  down 
by  the  town  in  a  sort  of  siege. 

That  same  night  of  the  20th  Lord  Dunmore,  in  Vir- 
ginia, landed  a  force  of  marines  from  an  armed  sloop  in 
224 


AN  ACCOUNT   OF  THE   CONCORD   FIGHT 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

the  river  and  seized  the  gunpowder  stored  at  Williams- 
burg.  There,  too,  the  country  rose, — under  Mr.  Henry 
himself  as  captain.  They  did  not  reach  the  scene  soon 
enough  to  meet  the  marines, — there  were  no  thick-set 
villages  in  that  country-side  to  pour  their  armed  men 
into  the  roads  at  a  moment's  summons, — but  they  forced 
the  earl,  their  governor,  to  pay  for  the  powder  he  had 
ordered  seized  and  taken  off. 

The  rude  muster  at  Boston  expanded  into  a  motley 
yeoman  army  of  sixteen  thousand  men  within  the  first 
week  of  its  sudden  rally,  and  settled  in  its  place  to  watch 
the  town  until  the  general  Congress  of  the  colonies  at 

Philadelphia    should 

give  ii:  countenance' 

and  a  commander.    On 
the  day  the  Congress 

SIGNATURE  OF   ETHAN   ALLEN  met       (May       10,       1775), 

Ethan    Allen    walked 

into  the  unguarded  gates  of  the  fort  at  Ticonderoga, 
at  the  head  of  a  little  force  out  of  Vermont,  and  took 
possession  of  the  stout  place  "  in  the  name  of  the  Great 
Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress/'  though  he 
held  a  commission  from  neither;  and  two  daj^s  later 
Crown  Point,  near  by,  was  taken  possession  of  in  the 
same  manner.  When  the  Congress  met  it  found  itself 
no  longer  a  mere  "Congress  of  Committees,''  assem- 
bled for  conference  and  protest.  Its  appeals  for  better 
government,  uttered  the  last  autumn,  its  arguments  for 
colonial  privilege,  its  protestations  of  loyalty  and  its 
prayers  for  redress,  had  been,  one  and  all,  not  so 
much  rejected  as  put  by  with  contempt  by  the  King 
and  his  ministers;  and  the  mere  movement  of  affairs 
was  hurrying  the  colonies  which  it  represented  into 
226 


THE   WAR   FOR    INDEPENDENCE 

measures  which  would  presently  put  the  whole  mat- 
ter of  its  controversy  with  the  government  at  home 
beyond  the  stage  of  debate.  Its  uneasy  members  did 
not  neglect  to  state  their  rights  again,  in  papers  whose 
moderation  and  temper  of  peace  no  candid  man  could 
overlook  or  deny;  but  they  prepared  for  action  also 


RUINS    OF    FORT    TICONDKROGA 


quite  as  carefully,  like  practical  men  who  did  not  deceive 
themselves  even  in  the  midst  of  hope. 

Colonel  Washington  had  come  to  the  Congress  in  his 
provincial  uniform;  and,  if  no  one  cared  to  ask  a  man 
with  whom  it  was  so  obviously  difficult  to  be  familiar 
wrhy  he  wore  such  a  habit  there,  all  were  free  to  draw 
their  own  conclusions.  It  was,  no  doubt,  his  instinctive 
expression  of  personal  feeling  in  the  midst  of  all  that 
was  happening ;  and  his  service  in  the  Congress  was 
from  first  to  last  that  of  a  soldier.  Its  committees  con- 
sulted him  almost  every  day  upon  some  question  of 
227 


WATCHING    THE    FIGHT    AT   BUNKER    HILL 


THE  WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

military  preparation:  the  protection  of  the  frontier 
against  the  Indians,  the  organization  of  a  continental 
force,  the  management  of  a  commissariat,  the  gather- 
ing of  munitions,  proper  means  of  equipment,  feasible 
plans  of  fortification.  While  they  deliberated,  his  own 
colony  passed  openly  into  rebellion.  The  1st  of  June 
saw  Virginia's  last  House  of  Burgesses  assemble.  By 
the  8th  of  the  month  Dunmore  had  fled  his  capital, 
rather  than  see  a  second  time  the  anger  of  a  Williams- 
burg  mob,  and  was  a  fugitive  upon  one  of  his  Maj- 
esty's armed  vessels  lying  in  the  river.  The  colony 
had  thenceforth  no  government  save  such  as  it  gave 
itself ;  and  its  delegates  at  Philadelphia  knew  that  there 
was  for  them  no  turning  back. 

On  the  1 5th  of  June,  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  John 
Adams,  the  Congress  chose  Colonel  Washington  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  American  forces,  and  directed 
him  to  repair  to  Boston  and  assume  command  in  the 
field.  Two  days  later  the  British  and  the  provincials 
met  in  a  bloody  and  stubborn  fight  at  Bunker  Hill. 
On  the  25th  of  May  heavy  reinforcements  for  General 
Gage  had  arrived  from  over  sea  which  swelled  the  force 
of  regulars  in  Boston  to  more  than  eight  thousand 
men,  and  added  three  experienced  general  officers  to 
Gage's  council :  William  Howe,  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  and 
John  Burgoyne.  The  British  commanders  saw  very 
well,  what  was  indeed  apparent  enough  to  any  soldier, 
that  their  position  in  Boston  could  be  very  effectively 
commanded  to  the  north  and  south  on  either  hand  by 
cannon  placed  upon  the  heights  of  Charlestown  or  Dor- 
chester, and  determined  to  occupy  Charlestown  heights 
at  once,  the  nearer  and  more  threatening  position.  But 
so  leisurely  did  they  go  about  it  that  the  provincials 
229 


VOL.        II. 1? 


1 


f< 


mk 


«ii4i 

&&  i&I 


THE  WAR  FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

were  beforehand  in  the  project.  The  early  morning 
light  of  the  I  yth  of  June  disclosed  them  still  at  work 
there  on  trenches  and  redoubts  which  they  had  begun 
at  midnight.  The  British  did  not  stop  to  use  either 
the  guns  of  the  fleet  or  any  caution  of  indirect  approach 
to  dislodge  them,  but  at  once  put  three  thousand  men 
straight  across  the  water  to  take  the  hill,  whose  crest 
the  Americans  were  fortifying,  by  direct  assault.  It 
cost  them  a  thousand  men;  and  the  colonials  retired, 
outnumbered  though  they  were,  only  because  their 
powder  gave  out,  not  their  pluck  or  steadfastness. 
When  the  thing  was  done,  the  British  did  not  care  to 
take  another  intrenched  position  from  men  who  held 
their  fire  till  they  were  within  a  few  score  yards  of 
them  and  then  volleyed  with  the  definite  and  deadly 
aim  of  marksmen. 

Colonel  Washington  received  his  formal  commission 
on  the  I9th,  and  was  on  horseback  for  the  journey  north- 
ward by  the  2 1st.  On  the  3d  of  July  he  assumed  com- 
mand at  Cambridge.  In  choosing  Washington  for  the 
command  of  the  raw  levies  of  Massachusetts,  Connecti- 
cut, Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire  set  down  in  im- 
promptu siege  before  Boston,  Mr.  John  Adams  and  the 
other  New  Englanders  who  acted  with  him  had  meant, 
not  only  to  secure  the  services  of  the  most  experienced 
soldier  in  America,  but  also,  by  taking  a  man  out  of  the 
South,  to  give  obvious  proof  of  the  union  and  co-opera- 
tion of  the  colonies.  They  had  chosen  better  than  they 
knew.  It  was  no  small  matter  to  have  so  noticeable  a 
man  of  honor  and  breeding  at  the  head  of  an  army  whose 
enemies  deemed  it  a  mere  peasant  mob  and  rowdy  as- 
semblage of  rebels.  Washington  himself,  with  his 
notions  of  authority,  his  pride  of  breeding,  his  schooling 
233 


BOSTON   AND   BUNKER   HILL,   FROM   A   PRINT   PUBLISHED   IN    1781 


THE   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

in  conduct  and  privilege,  was  far  from  pleased,  till  he 
began  to  see  below  the  surface,  with  the  disorderly 
array  he  found  of  uncouth,  intractable  plough  boys 
and  farmers,  one  esteeming  himself  as  good  as  another, 
with  free-and-easy  manners  and  a  singular,  half-indif- 
ferent insolence  against  authority  or  discipline. 

"There  are  some  fine  fellows  come  from  Virginia/' 
Joseph  Reed,  of  Pennsylvania,  had  written  of  the  Vir- 
ginian delegates  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia;  "but 
they  are  very  high.  We  understand  they  are  the  cap- 
ital men  of  the  colony ."  It  was  good  that  one  of  the 
masterful  group  should  ride  all  the  public  way  from 
Philadelphia  to  Boston  to  take  command  of  the  army, 
the  most  conspicuous  figure  in  the  colonies,  showing 
every  one  of  the  thousands  who  crowded  to  greet  or  see 
him  as  he  passed  how  splendid  a  type  of  self-respecting 
gentlemen  was  now  to  be  seen  at  the  front  of  affairs, 
putting  himself  forward  soberly  and  upon  principle. 
The  leaders  of  the  revolt  in  Massachusetts  were  by  no 
means  all  new  men  like  John  Adams  or  habitual  agita- 
tors like  Samuel  Adams;  many  a  man  of  substance 
and  of  old  lineage  had  also  identified  himself  with  the 
popular  cause.  But  new,  unseasoned  men  were  very 
numerous  and  very  prominent  there  among  those  who 
had  turned  affairs  upside  down ;  a  very  great  number 
of  the  best  and  oldest  families  of  the  colony  had  prompt- 
ly ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  government; 
the  revolution  now  at  last  on  foot  in  that  quarter  could 
too  easily  be  made  to  look  like  an  affair  of  popular 
clamor,  a  mere  rising  of  the  country.  It  was  of  signal 
advantage  to  have  high  personal  reputation  and  a 
strong  flavor,  as  it  were,  of  aristocratic  distinction 
given  it  by  this  fortunate  choice  the  Congress  had 
235 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

made  of  a  commander.  It  was  no  light  matter  to  de- 
spise a  cause  which  such  men  openly  espoused  and 
stood  ready  to  fight  for. 

The  British  lay  still  till  Washington  came,  and  gave 
him  the  rest  of  the  year,  and  all  the  winter  till  spring 
returned,  in  which  to  get  his  rude  army  into  fighting 
shape, — why,  no  one  could  tell,  not  even  their  friends 
and  spokesmen  in  Parliament.  The  Americans  swarmed 
busy  on  every  hand.  It  proved  infinitely  difficult  for  them 
to  get  supplies,  particularly  arms  and  ammunition ;  but 
slowly,  very  slowly,  they  came  in.  General  Washing- 
ton was  but  forty-three,  and  had  an  energy  which  was 
both  imperative  and  infectious.  His  urgent,  explicit, 
businesslike  letters  found  their  way  to  every  man  of 
influence  and  to  every  colonial  committee  or  assembly 
from  whom  aid  could  come.  Cannon  were  dragged  all 
the  way  from  Ticonderoga  for  his  use.  The  hardy, 
danger-loving  seamen  of  the  coasts  about  him  took  very 
cheerfully  to  privateering ;  intercepted  supply  ships  and 
even  transports  bound  for  Boston ;  brought  English 
merchantmen  into  port  as  prizes;  cut  ships  out  from 
under  the  very  guns  of  a  British  man-of-war  here  and 
there  in  quiet  harbors.  Food  and  munitions  intended 
for  the  British  regiments  at  Boston  frequently  found 
their  way  to  General  Washington's  camps  instead, 
notwithstanding  Boston  harbor  was  often  full  of  armed 
vessels  which  might  have  swept  the  coasts.  The  com- 
manders in  Boston  felt  beset,  isolated,  and  uneasy,  and 
hesitated  painfully  what  to  do. 

The  country  at  large  was  open  to  the  insurgent  forces, 

to  move  in  as  they  pleased.    In  the  autumn  Colonel 

Montgomery,  the  gallant  young  Irish  soldier  who  had 

served  under  Wolfe  at  Quebec,  led  a  continental  force 

236 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

northward  through  the  wilderness ;  took  the  forts  which 
guaided  the  northern  approaches  to  Lake  Champlain; 
and  occupied  Montreal,  intercepting  and  taking  the 
little  garrison  which  left  the  place  in  boats  to  make 
its  way  down  the  river.  Meanwhile  Colonel  Benedict 
Arnold  was  at  the  gates  of  Quebec,  and  Montgomery 
pushed  forward  to  join  him.  Colonel  Arnold  had  forced 
his  way  in  from  the  coast  through  the  thick  forests  of 
Maine,  along  the  icy  streams  of  the  Kennebec  and  the 
Chaudiere.  The  bitter  journey  had  cost  him  quite  a 
third  of  the  little  force  with  which  Washington  had  sent 
him  forth.  He  had  but  seven  hundred  men  with  whom 
to  take  the  all  but  impregnable  place,  and  Montgomery 
brought  but  a  scant  five  hundred  to  assist  him.  But 
the  two  young  commanders  were  not  to  be  daunted. 
They  loved  daring,  and  touched  all  who  followed  them 
with  their  own  indomitable  spirit.  In  the  black  dark- 
ness of  the  night  which  preceded  the  last  day  of  the 
year  (December  31,  1775),  amidst  a  blinding  storm  of 
snow,  they  threw  themselves  upon  the  defences  of  the 
place,  and  would  have  taken  it  had  not  Montgomery 
lost  his  life  ere  his  men  gained  their  final  foothold 
within  the  walls.  The  Congress  at  Philadelphia  had 
at  least  the  satisfaction  of  receiving  the  colors  of  the 
Seventh  Regiment  of  his  Majesty's  regulars,  taken  at 
Fort  Chambly,  as  a  visible  token  of  Montgomery's  ex- 
ploits at  the  northern  outlet  of  Champlain;  and  every 
added  operation  of  the  Americans,  successful  or  unsuc- 
cessful, added  to  the  feeling  of  isolation  and  uneasiness 
among  the  British  at  Boston. 

October  10,  1775,  Sir  William  Howe  superseded  Gen- 
eral Gage  as  commander-in-chief  in  the  closely  watched 
and  invested  town;  but  the  change  of  commanders 
237 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

made  little  difference.     Every  one  except  the  sailors, 
the    foragers,    the   commissaries,    the   drill   sergeants. 


RICHARD   MONTGOMERY 


the  writing  clerks,  the  colonial   assemblies,  the  con- 
gressional and  local  committees,  lay  inactive  till  March 
came,    1776,   and  Washington  was  himself  ready  to 
238 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

take  the  offensive.  At  last  he  had  such  cannon  and 
such  tools  and  stores  and  wagons  and  teams  as  he  had 
been  asking  and  planning  and  waiting  for  the  weary, 
anxious  winter  through.  On  the  morning  of  the  5th 
of  March  the  British  saw  workmen  and  ordnance  and 
every  sign  of  a  strong  force  of  provincials  on  Dorchester 
heights,  and  were  as  surprised  as  they  had  been,  close 
upon  a  year  before,  to  see  men  and  trenches  on  Bunker 
Hill.  Washington  had  done  work  in  the  night  which 
it  was  already  too  late  for  them  to  undo ;  a  storm  beat 
the  waters  of  the  bay  as  the  day  wore  on  and  made  it 
impossible  to  put  troops  across  to  the  attack  in  boats ; 
Washington  had  all  the  day  and  another  night  in 
which  to  complete  his  defences;  and  by  the  morning 
of  the  6th  the  British  knew  that  the  heights  could  not 
be  taken  without  a  risk  and  loss  they  could  not  afford. 
The  town  was  rendered  untenable  at  a  stroke.  With 
deep  chagrin,  Howe  determined  upon  an  immediate 
evacuation;  and  by  the  iyth  he  was  aboard  his  ships, 
— eight  thousand  troops  and  more  than  a  thousand 
loyalists  who  dared  not  stay.  The  stores  and  can- 
non, the  ammunition,  muskets,  small-arms,  gun  car- 
riages, and  supplies  of  every  kind  which  he  found 
himself  obliged  to  leave  behind  enriched  Washington 
with  an  equipment  more  abundant  than  he  could  ever 
have  hoped  to  see  in  his  economical,  ill-appointed  camp 
at  Cambridge. 

The  only  British  army  in  America  had  withdrawn 
to  Halifax :  his  Majesty's  troops  had  nowhere  a  foothold 
in  the  colonies.  But  that,  every  one  knew,  was  only 
the  first  act  in  a  struggle  which  must  grow  vastly  greater 
and  more  tragical  before  it  was  ended.  Washington 
knew  very  well  that  there  was  now  no  drawing  back. 
239 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

Not  since  the  affair  at  Bunker  Hill  had  he  deemed  it 
possible  to  draw  back;  and  now  this  initial  success 
in  arms  had  made  the  friends  of  revolution  very  bold 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN   AS   A   POLITICIAN 

everywhere.  As  spring  warmed  into  summer  it  was 
easy  to  mark  the  growth  in  the  spirit  of  independence. 
One  of  the  first  measures  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
after  coming  together  for  its  third  annual  session  in 
May,  1776,  was  to  urge  the  several  colonies  to  provide 
240 


THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

themselves  with  regular  and  permanent  governments 
as  independent  states,  instead  of  continuing  to  make 
shift  with  committees  of  safety  for  executives  and  pro- 
visional "provincial  congresses"  for  legislatures,  as 


R.    H.   LEE  S   RESOLUTION   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

they  had  done  since  their  government  under  the  crown 
had  fallen  to  pieces;  and  they  most  of  them  promptly 
showed  a  disposition  to  take  its  advice.  The  resolution 
in  which  the  Congress  embodied  this  significant  counsel 
plainly  declared  "that  the  exercise  of  every  kind  of 

«•— x6  241 


A    HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

authority  under  the  crown  ought  to  be  totally  sup- 
pressed," and  all  the  powers  of  government  exercised 
under  authority  from  the  people  of  the  colonies,  —  words 
themselves  equivalent  to  a  declaration  for  entire  sep- 
aration from  Great  Britain.  Even  in  the  colonies 
where  loyalists  mustered  strongest  the  government  of 
the  crown  had  in  fact  almost  everywhere  been  openly 
thrown  off.  But  by  midsummer  it  was  deemed  best  to 
make  a  formal  Declaration  of  Independence.  North 
Carolina  was  the  first  to  instruct  her  delegates  to  take 


STAtE   HOUSE,   PHILADKLPHIA,   1778 

that  final  and  irretrievable  step;  but  most  of  the  other 
colonies  were  ready  to  follow  her  lead;  and  on  July 
4th  Congress  adopted  the  impressive  Declaration  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  had  drawn  up  in  the  name  of  its  com- 
mittee. 

Washington  himself  had  urgently  prayed  that  such 
a  step  be  taken,  and  taken  at  once.  It  would  not  change, 
it  would  only  acknowledge,  existing  facts  ;  and  it  might 
a  little  simplify  the  anxious  business  he  was  about. 
He  had  an  army  which  was  always  making  and  to  be 
made,  because  the  struggle  had  been  calculated  upon 
a  short  scale  and  the  colonies  which  were  contributing 
their  half-drilled  contingents  to  it  were  enlisting  their 
men  for  only  three  months  at  a  time.  Sometimes  the 
242 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

men  would  consent  to  re-enlist,  sometimes  they  would 
not.  They  did  as  they  pleased,  of  course,  and  would 
time  and  again  take  themselves  off  by  whole  companies 
at  once  when  their  three  months'  term  was  up.  Sir 
William  Howe  would  come  back,  of  course,  with  a  force 
increased,  perhaps  irresistible :  would  come,  Washing- 
ton foresaw,  not  to  Boston,  where  he  could  be  cooped 


SIGNATURE    OF   THOMAS   JEFFERSON 

up  and  kept  at  bay,  but  to  New  York,  to  get  control 
of  the  broad  gateway  of  the  Hudson,  whose  long  valley 
had  its  head  close  to  the  waters  of  Lake  George  and 
Lake  Champlain,  and  constituted  an  infinitely  impor- 
tant strategic  line  drawn  straight  through  the  heart 
of  the  country,  between  New  England,  which  was  no 
doubt  hopelessly  rebellious,  and  the  middle  colonies, 
in  which  the  crown  could  count  its  friends  by  the  thou- 
sand. The  Americans  must  meet  him,  apparently, 
with  levies  as  raw  and  as  hastily  equipped  as  those 
out  of  which  an  army  of  siege  had  been  improvised  at 
Boston,  each  constituent  part  of  which  would  fall  to 
pieces  and  have  to  be  put  together  again  every  three 
months. 

The  worst  of  it  was,  that  the  country  back  of  New 
York  had  not  been,  could  not  be,  purged  of  active  loyal- 
ists as  the  country  round  about  Boston  had  been  by 
the  local  "  committees "  of  one  sort  or  another  and  by 
the  very  active  and  masterful  young  men  who  had 
banded  themselves  together  as  "Sons  of  Liberty/'  see- 
243 


JEFFERSON'S  ORIGINAL  DRAFT  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 


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A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 


REAR    VIEW    OF    INDEPENDENCE   HALL 


ing  much  rich  adventure,  and  for  the  present  little 
responsibility,  ahead  of  them  in  those  days  of  gov- 
ernment by  resolution.  Washington  transferred  his 
headquarters  to  New  York  early  in  April  and  set 
about  his  almost  hopeless  task  with  characteristic 
energy  and  fertility  of  resource;  but  there  were  spies 
without  number  all  about  him,  and  every  country-side 
was  full  of  enemies  who  waited  for  General  Hcwe's 
coming  to  give  him  trouble.  The  formal  Declaration 
of  Independence  which  the  Congress  adopted  in  July 
hardened  the  face  and  stiffened  the  resolution  of 
every  man  who  had  definitely  thrown  in  his  lot  with 
the  popular  cause,  as  Washington  had  foreseen  that 
it  would,  just  because  it  made  resistance  avowed  re- 
bellion, and  left  no  way  of  retreat  or  compromise. 
But  it  also  deeply  grieved  and  alienated  many  a  man 
248 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

of  judgment  and  good  feeling,  and  made  party  differ- 
ences within  the  colonies  just  so  much  the  more  bitter 
and  irreconcilable. 

The  first  attempt  of  the  British  was  made  against 
Charleston  in  the  south.  A  fleet  under  Sir  Peter  Parker 
came  out  of  England  with  fresh  troops  commanded 
by  the  Earl  of  Cornwallis,  was  joined  by  transports 
and  men-of-war  from  Halifax,  bearing  a  force  under 
Sir  Henry  Clinton,  and,  as  June  drew  towards  its  close, 
delivered  a  combined  attack,  by  land  and  sea,  upon 
the  fort  on  Sullivan's  Island,  seeking  to  win  its  way 
past  to  the  capture  of  Charleston  itself.  But  they 
could  not  force  a  passage.  Two  of  the  ships, — one 
of  them  Sir  Peter's  own  flag-ship, — never  came  away 
again.  Colonel  Moultrie  and  Colonel  Thompson  beat 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  CHAIR  IN  THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION 

249 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 


MAP 

y 

FORT   MOULT RIE 

^ 
SULLIVAN*  I5LAND 


MAP  OF  SULLIVAN'S  ISLAND 

off  both  the  fleet  and  the  troops  landed  from  it;  and 
the  British  went  northward  again  to  concentrate  upon 
New  York. 

On  the  28th  of  June, — the  very  day  of  the  attack  at 
Charleston, — Howe's  transports  began  to  gather  in 
the  lower  bay.  A  few  days  more,  and  there  were  thirty 
thousand  troops  waiting  to  be  landed.  It  was  impos- 
sible, with  the  force  Washington  had,  to  prevent  their 
being  put  ashore  at  their  commander's  convenience.  It 
was  impossible  to  close  the  Narrows,  to  keep  their  ships 
from  the  inner  bay,  or  even  to  prevent  their  passing 
up  the  river  as  they  pleased.  Washington  could  only 
wait  within  the  exposed  town  or  within  his  trenches 
on  Brooklyn  heights,  which  commanded  the  town  al- 
250 


THE  WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE" 

most   as    Dorchester   and    Charlestown    heights    com- 
manded Boston. 


WILLIAM   MOULTRIE 


$ 


For  a  month  and  more  Sir  William  waited,  his  troops 
most  of  them  still  upon  the  ships,  until  he  should  first 
attempt  to  fulfil  his  mission  of  peace  and  accommo- 
251 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

dation.  His  brother,  Admiral  Lord  Howe,  joined  him 
there  in  July.  They  were  authorized  to  offer  uncon- 
ditional pardon,  even  now,  to  all  who  would  submit. 
The  ministers  in  England  could  not  have  chosen  com- 
missioners of  peace  more  acceptable  to  the  Americans 
or  more  likely  to  be  heard  than  the  Howes.  Not  only 
were  they  men  of  honor,  showing  in  all  that  they  did 
the  straightforward  candor  and  the  instinctive  sense 
of  duty  that  came  with  their  breeding  and  their  train- 
ing in  arms,  but  they  were  also  brothers  of  that  gallant 
young  soldier  who  had  come  over  almost  twenty  years 
ago  to  fight  the  French  with  Abercrombie,  to  be  loved 
by  every  man  who  became  his  comrade,  and  to  lose 
his  life  untimely  fighting  forward  through  the  forests 
which  lay  about  Ticonderoga,  a  knightly  and  heroic 
figure.  But  they  could  offer  no  concessions, — only 
pardon  for  utter  submission,  and,  for  all  their  honor- 
able persistency,  could  find  no  one  in  authority  among 
the  Americans  who  would  make  the  too  exacting  ex- 
change. Their  offers  of  pardon  alternated  with  the 
movements  of  their  troops  and  their  steady  successes 
in  arms.  Lord  Howe  issued  his  first  overture  of  peace, 
in  the  form  of  a  public  proclamation  offering  pardon, 
immediately  upon  his  arrival  with  his  fleet  at  Sandy 
Hook,  and  followed  it  up  at  once  with  messages  to  the 
Congress  at  Philadelphia.  Sir  William  Howe  put  his 
troops  ashore  on  the  22d  of  August,  and  made  ready 
to  dislodge  Washington  from  the  heights  of  Brooklyn ; 
but  on  the  23d  he  too,  in  his  turn,  made  yet  another 
offer  of  general  pardon,  by  proclamation. 

On  the  2yth  he  drove  the  American  forces  on  Long 
Island  in  on  their  defences,  and  rendered  the  heights 
(it  once  practically  untenable.  Washington  liad  but 


THE  WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

eighteen    thousand    half  -  disciplined    militiamen   with 
which  to  hold  the  town  and  all  the  long  shores  of  the 


SIR   WILLIAM   HOWE 


open  bay  and  river,  and  had  put  ten  thousand  of 
them  across  the  river  to  hold  Long  Island  and  the 
defences  on  the  heights.  Sir  William  had  put  twenty 


A  HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

thousand  men  ashore  for  the  attack  on  the  heights; 
and  when  Washington  knew  that  his  advanced  guard 
was  driven  in,  and  saw  Sir  William,  mindful  of  Bun- 
ker Hill,  bestow  his  troops,  not  for  an  assault,  but  for 
an  investment  of  the  heights,  he  perceived  at  once  how 
easily  he  might  be  cut  off  and  trapped  there,  armed 
ships  lying  at  hand  which  might  at  any  moment  com- 
pletely command  the  river.  Immediately,  and  as  se- 
cretly as  quickly,  while  a  single  night  held,  he  with- 
drew every  man  and  every  gun,  as  suddenly  and  as 
successfully  as  he  had  seized  the  heights  at  Dorchester. 

Again  Sir  William  sent  a  message  of  conciliation 
to  the  Congress,  by  the  hands  of  General  Sullivan, 
his  prisoner.  On  the  nth  of  September,  before  the  next 
movement  of  arms,  Dr.  Franklin,  Mr.  John  Adams, 
and  Mr.  Edward  Rutledge  met  Lord  Howe  and  Sir 
William,  as  commissioners  from  the  Congress,  to  dis- 
cuss possible  terms  of  accommodation.  Dr.  Franklin 
had  been  in  London  until  March.  During  the  past  win- 
ter he  had  more  than  once  met  Lord  Howe  in  earnest 
conference  about  American  affairs,  the  ministers  wish- 
ing to  find  through  him  some  way,  if  it  were  possible, 
of  quieting  the  colonies.  But  the  ministers  had  not 
been  willing  then  to  make  the  concessions  which  might 
have  ended  the  trouble,  and  their  commissioners  were 
not  authorized  to  make  them  now;  and  the  conference 
with  the  representatives  of  the  Congress  came  to  noth- 
ing, as  the  conferences  in  London  had  come  to  nothing. 

Washington  could  no  more  hold  Manhattan  Island 
with  the  forces  at  his  command  than  he  could  hold 
Brooklyn  heights.  He  had  no  choice  in  the  end  but 
to  retire.  General  Howe  was  cautious,  moved  slowly, 
and  handled  his  forces  with  little  energy  or  decision; 


BY    HIS     EXCELLENCY 

WILLIAM  HOWE, 

MAJOR   GENERAL,  £#r.  &>c.  &c. 

AS  Linnen  and  Woolen  Goods  arc  Articles 
much  wanted  by  the  Rebels,  and  would 
aid  and  aflift  them  in  their  Rebellion,  the  Com- 
mander in  Chief  expects  that  all  good  ^objects 
will  ufe  their  utm oft  Endeavors  to  have  all  fuch 
Articles convey'd  from  this  Place:  Any  who  have 
notOpportunity  to  convey  theirGoods  under  t  ,•  ir 
own  Care,  may"  deliver  them  on  Board  the  Mi- 
nerva at  Hubbard's  Wharf,  to  Crean  B'rttfb,-  life]; 
mark'd  with  their  Names,  who  \vill  give  a  Certifi- 
cate of  the  Delivery,  and  will  oblige  himfc'f  to 
return  them  to  the  Owners,  all  unavoidable  Ac- 
cidents accepted. 

If  after  this  Notice  any  Perfon  fecretcs  or  keep; 
in  his  PofTeiTion  fiich  Articles,  he  will  be 

a  Favourer  of  Rebels^ 

Bofton,  Marchiptb, 


HOWE'S   PROCLAMATION    PREPARATORY   TO   LEAVING   BOSTON 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Washington  made  stand  and  fought  at  every  point 
at  which  there  was  the  least  promise  of  success.  His 
men  and  his  commanders  were  shamefully  demoralized 
by  their  defeat  on  Long  Island,  but  he  held  them  to- 
gether with  singular  tact  and  authority :  repulsed  the 
enemy  at  Haarlem  heights  (September  i6th),  held  his 
own  before  them  at  White  Plains  (October  28th), — and 
did  not  feel  obliged  to  abandon  the  island  until  late  in 
November,  after  General  Greene  had  fatally  blundered 
by  suffering  three  thousand  of  the  best  trained  men 
of  the  scant  continental  force,  with  invaluable  artil- 
lery, small-arms,  and  stores,  to  be  trapped  and  taken 
at  Fort  Washington  (November  i6th). 

When  he  did  at  last  withdraw,  and  leave  Howe  in 
complete  control  of  the  great  port  and  its  approaches, 
the  situation  was  indeed  alarming.  He  had  been  un- 
speakably stung  and  disquieted,  as  he  withdrew  mile 
by  mile  up  the  island,  to  see  how  uncertain  his  men 
were  in  the  field, — how  sometimes  they  would  fight 
and  sometimes  they  would  not  at  the  hot  crisis  of  a 
critical  encounter;  and  now  things  seemed  to  have  gone 
utterly  to  pieces.  He  might  at  any  moment  be  quite 
cut  off  from  New  England.  While  he  still  faced  Howe 
on  Manhattan  Island,  General  Carleton,  moving  with 
a  British  force  out  of  Canada,  had  driven  Benedict 
Arnold  up  Champlain,  despite  stubborn  and  gallant 
resistance  (October  nth  and  I3th),  and  on  the  I4th  of 
October  had  occupied  Crown  Point.  There  he  had 
stopped;  and  later  news  came  that  he  had  withdrawn. 
But  apparently  he  could  strike  again  almost  when  he 
pleased,  and  threaten  all  the  long  line  of  the  Hudson 
even  to  where  Howe  lay  at  New  York  itself. 

It  was  not  mere  defeat,  however,  that  put  the  cast 
256 


EVACUATION   OF   BROOKLYN   HEIOHTS 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 

almost  of  despair  upon  affairs  as  Washington  saw 
them  that  dismal  autumn.  His  forces  seemed  to  melt 
away  under  his  very  eyes.  Charles  Lee,  his  chief 
subordinate  in  command,  too  much  a  soldier  of  fort- 
une to  be  a  man  of  honor,  obeyed  or  disregarded  his 
orders  at  his  own  discretion.  When  once  it  was  known 
that  General  Washington  had  been  obliged  to  aban- 
don the  Hudson,  consternation  and  defection  spread 
everywhere.  On  the  30th  of  November,  when  his  de- 
feat seemed  complete,  it  might  be  final,  the  Howes 
joined  in  a  fresh  proclamation  of  pardon,  inviting  all, 
once  again,  to  submit  and  be  forgiven;  and  it  looked 
for  a  little  as  if  all  who  dared  would  take  advantage 
of  the  offer  and  make  their  peace  with  the  enemy, — 
for  Washington  now  moved  in  a  region  where  opinion 
had  from  the  first  been  sharply  divided.  While  de- 
fection spread  he  was  in  full  retreat,  with  scarcely 
three  thousand  men  all  told  in  his  demoralized  force, 
— that  handful  ill-clad  and  stricken  with  disease,  and 
dwindling  fast  by  desertion, — an  overwhelming  body 
of  the  enemy,  under  Cornwallis,  at  his  very  heels  as 
he  went,  so  that  he  dared  hardly  so  much  as  pause 
for  rest  until  he  had  put  the  broad  shelter  of  the  Dela- 
ware behind  him.  "  These  are  the  times  that  try  men's 
souls,"  cried  Thomas  Paine  (December,  1776);  "the 
summer  soldier  and  the  sunshine  patriot"  were  falling 
away.  One  after  another,  that  very  summer,  the  dele- 
gates of  the  several  states  had  put  their  names  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  but  already  there  seemed 
small  prospect  of  making  it  good.  To  not  a  few  it 
already  began  to  seem  a  piece  of  mere  bravado,  to  be 
repented  of. 

The  real  strength  and  hope  of  the  cause  lay  in  the 
258 


IN  COUNCIL  OF  SAFETY? 

PHILADELPHIA,  December 8,  1775.     . 
S  I  R. 

i-p*  HERE  is  certain  intelligence  of  General  Howe  s  army  feeing 
yefterday  on  its  march  from  Brunfwick  to  Princetown,  which  puts  it 
beyond  a  doubt  that  he  intends  for  this  city  — This  glorious  oppor- 
tunity of  fignalizing  himfelf  in  defence  of  our  country^  and  fecurjng 
the  Rights  of  America  forever,  will  be  feized  by  every  man 'who  has 
a  fpark  of  patriotic  fire  in  his  bofom.  We  entreat  you  to  march 
the  Militia  under  your  command  with  all  poffible  expedition  CQ  this 
city,  and  bring  with  you  as  many  waggons  as  you  can  poflibly  pro- 
cure, which  you  are  hereby  authorized  to  imprefs,  if  they  cannot  be 
had  orhfvwife — Delay  not  a  moment,  it  may  be  fatal  and  fubjeft  you 
and  all  you  hold  moft  dear  to  the  ruffian  hands  of  the  enemy,  whofe 
cruelties  are  without  diftin&ion  and  unequalled. 

fy  Order  of  the  Council, 
DAVID   RITTENHOUSE,  VicePrefident. 

Tetk  COLONELS  w  COMMANDING 
OFFlCERSc/"/^  tycffeahie  Battalions  of 
ibis  STATB. 

TWO-   O'CLOC  K,    P.M. 

THE  Enemy  are  at  Trenton,  and  all  the  City  Militia  ar« 
Inarched  to  meet  them, 

CIRCULAR   OF   PHILADELPHIA  COUNCIL  OF  SAFETY 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

steadfastness  and  the  undaunted  initiative  of  the  in- 
domitable Virginian  whom  the  Congress  had  chosen 
for  the  chief  command.  He  proved  himself  a  maker 
as  well  as  a  commander  of  armies,  struck  oftenest  when 
he  was  deemed  most  defeated,  could  not  by  any  reverse 
be  put  out  of  the  fighting.  He  was  now  for  the  first 
time  to  give  the  British  commanders  a  real  taste  of 
his  quality.  What  there  was  to  be  done  he  did  him- 
self. The  British  stopped  at  the  Delaware;  but  their 
lines  reached  Burlington,  \vithin  eighteen  miles  of  Phil- 
adelphia, and  from  Trenton,  which  they  held  in  some 
force,  extended  through  Princeton  to  New  Brunswick 
and  their  headquarters  at  New  York.  Philadelphia  was 
stricken  with  utter  panic.  Sick  and  ragged  soldiers 
poured  in  from  Washington's  camp,  living  evidences 
of  what  straits  he  was  in,  and  had  to  be  succored  and 
taken  care  of;  the  country  roads  were  crowded  with 
vehicles  leaving  the  town  laden  with  women  and  chil- 
dren and  household  goods;  the  Congress  itself  incon- 
tinently fled  the  place  and  betook  itself  to  Baltimore. 
Washington's  military  stores  were  in  the  town,  but  he 
could  get  no  proper  protection  for  them.  It  was  at  that 
very  moment,  nevertheless,  that  he  showed  all  the 
world  with  what  skill  and  audacity  he  could  strike. 
By  dint  of  every  resolute  and  persistent  effort  he  had 
before  Christmas  brought  his  little  force  to  a  fighting 
strength  of  some  six  thousand.  More  than  half  of  these 
were  men  enlisted  only  until  the  new  year  should  open, 
but  he  moved  before  that. 

During  the  night  of  Christmas  Day,    1776,   ferried 

by  doughty  fishermen  from   far   Gloucester  and  Mar- 

blehead, — the  same  hardy   fellows  who  had  handled 

his  boats  the  night  he  abandoned  the  heights  of  Brook- 

260 


OPERATIONS   AROUND   TRENTON  AND   PRINCETON.      NUMBERS    76    REPRE- 
SENT THE  CAMPS   OF   GENERAL  CORNWALLIS  AND   77  THAT  OF 
GENERAL  KNYPHAUSEN   ON   THE   230   OF   JUNE,   1777 


VOL.      II. —  I  g 


A  HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

lyn, — he  got  twenty-five  hundred  men  across  the  river 
through  pitchy  darkness  and  pounding  ice;  and  in 
the  early  light  and  frost  of  the  next  morning  he  took 
Trenton,  with  its  garrison  of  nine  hundred  Hessians, 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  There  he  waited, — keep- 
ing his  unwilling  militiamen  to  their  service  past  the 
opening  of  the  year  by  dint  of  imperative  persuasion 
and  a  pledge  of  his  own  private  fortune  for  their  pay, 
; — until  Cornwallis  came  down  post-haste  out  of  New 
York  with  eight  thousand  men.  Moving  only  to  change 
his  position  a  little,  he  dared  to  wait  until  his  adver- 
sary was  encamped,  at  nightfall  of  the  2d  of  January, 
1 777,  within  ear-shot  of  his  trenches;  then  slipped  north- 
ward in  the  night,  easily  beat  the  British  detachment 
posted  at  Princeton,  as  the  next  day  dawned  and  had 
its  morning;  and  could  have  taken  or  destroyed  Corn- 
wallis's  stores  at  New  Brunswick  had  his  men  been 
adequately  shod  to  outstrip  the  British  following  hard 
behind  them.  As  it  was,  he  satisfied  himself  with 
having  completely  flanked  and  thwarted  his  foe,  and 
withdrew  safe  to  the  heights  of  Morristown.  The 
British  had  hastily  retired  from  Burlington  upon  the 
taking  of  Trenton, — so  hastily  that  they  took  neither 
their  cannon  nor  even  their  heavier  baggage  away 
with  them.  Now  they  deemed  it  unsafe  to  take  post 
anywhere  south  of  New  Brunswick,  until  spring  should 
come  and  they  could  see  what  Washington  meant  to 
do.  Once  again,  therefore,  the  Americans  controlled 
New  Jersey;  and  Washington  ordered  all  who  had 
accepted  General  Howe's  offer  of  pardon  either  to  with- 
draw to  the  British  lines  or  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  United  States.  Daring  and  a  touch  of  genius 
had  turned  despair  into  hope.  Americans  did  not 
262 


THE   WAR    FOR    INDEPENDENCE 


soon  forget  that  sudden  triumph  of  arms,  or  that  the 
great  Frederick  of  Prussia  had  said  that  that  had  been 
the  most  brilliant  campaign  of  the  century. 

A  soldier's  eye  could  see  quickly  and  plainly  enough 
how  the  whole  aspect  of  the  war  had  been  changed  by 
those  brief,  sudden,  unexpected  strokes  at  Trenton  and 
Princeton.  Men  near  at  hand,  and  looking  for  what 
a  soldier  would  deem  it  no  business  of  his  to  reckon 
with,  saw  that  it  had  not  only  radi- 
cally altered  the  military  situation, 
but  also  the  very  atmosphere  of 
the  times  for  all  concerned.  The 
fighting  at  Trenton  and  Princeton 
had  been  of  no  great  consequence 
in  itself,  but  it  had  in  every  way 
put  the  war  beyond  its  experimental 
stage.  It  had  taught  the  British 
commanders  with  what  sort  of 
spirit  and  genius  they  had  to  deal, 
and  how  certain  it  was  that  their 
task  must  be  carried  to  a  finish 
not  only  by  conquering  marches 
and  a  mere  occupation  of  the  country,  but  by  careful 
strategy  and  the  long  plans  of  a  set  campaign.  More- 
over, they  now  obviously  had  a  country,  and  not  an 
insurgent  army  merely,  to  conquer, — and  a  vast  country 
at  that.  That  surprising  winter  had  set  men's  sinews 
to  what  they  had  undertaken,  on  the  one  side  as  on 
the  other. 

In  December  (1776)  it  had  looked  as  if  all  firmness 

had  been  unnerved  and  all  hope  turned  to  foreboding 

by  the  success  of  the  British  at  New  York  and  in  the 

Jerseys.     Joseph    Galloway,    of    Pennsylvania,    when 

263 


HESSIAN    BOOT 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

that  crisis  came,  took  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
to  remove  within  the  British  lines  and  cast  in  his  lot 
there  with  those  who  were  ready  to  stake  everything 
upon  their  loyalty  and  the  success  of  the  British  arms. 
Others  followed  his  example, — some  out  of  panic,  but 
many,  it  seemed,  not  out  of  fear,  but  out  of  principle. 
Only  the  other  day  Mr.  Galloway  had  been  the  chief 
figure  in  the  Congress  of  Committees  which  spoke  for 
the  colonies ;  for  many  a  long  day  he  had  been  the  chief 
figure  in  the  politics  of  his  own  colony;  and  many  of 
those  who  made  submission  when  he  did  were  of  families 
of  the  first  dignity  and  consequence.  They,  like  him, 
had  been  champions  of  colonial  rights  until  it  came 
to  the  point  of  rebellion.  They  would  not  follow  further. 
Their  example  was  imitated  now,  moreover,  in  their 
act  of  formal  submission,  by  some  who  had  played  the 
part  of  patriot  more  boldly  and  with  less  compunction. 
Mr.  Samuel  Tucker,  even,  who  until  this  untoward 
month  had  been  president  of  New  Jersey's  revolutionary 
committee  of  safety,  made  his  submission.  It  seemed 
hard  to  find  steadfastness  anywhere. 

But  Washington's  genius  and  the  license  of  the 
British  soldiery  had  turned  the  tide  at  last,  when  it 
seemed  upon  the  very  point  of  becoming  overwhelm- 
ing. The  occupation  of  the  British,  brief  as  it  had 
been,  had  brought  upon  New  York  and  the  Jerseys 
experiences  like  those  of  a  country  overrun  by  a  foreign 
soldiery  permitted  almost  every  license  of  conquest. 
When  the  ministers  in  England  found  themselves, 
in  1774,  face  to  face  with  the  revolt  in  the  colonies, 
they  could  count  but  17,547  men  all  told  in  the  King's 
forces;  and  when  it  came  to  sudden  recruiting,  they 
could  obtain  very  few  enlistments.  They  dared  not  risk 
264 


LflL'r  J /(,.-,;    an    O^ftJV    <f  DijTl/^iio;;    in    the 

Arneiican   Ai-t>rf. 

S'-\"  "r  you  this  morning,  1  have  h.ui  ..n  opportunity  of  hearing1 
a  n:n::lv-i  oi  ihc  p.irtii  -i1": ••.  of  the  horrid  dcpred  .tioT,  committed  by  th.it 
r.:ri  i..!  the  1,'rituii  anr.v,  w!ii,;h  was  ltiti'i::rd  *t  and  nc;:r  Pcnnytown,  "under 
jiic  v  ii.rn.ind  of  Lord  OrmvaHis.  C.-iides  the  (ixuxn  younir  women  who  had 
Hi  A  :  UK-  W  :.N  tu  avoid  their  brutality,  and  were  there  feixcd  and  carried  oft, 
«nc  man  !,:,!  the  crud  mortification  to  have  hi,  wife  and  only  daughter  (a  child 
r!  ten  years  ul  age)  raviflicd  j  thib  he  himfeU",  almoft  choaked  with,  grief,  ut- 
tered in  lamentations  to  his  iricr.d,  who  told  me  of  it,  and  alfo  informed  me 
that  another  girl  of  thirteen  years  oi  age  w.\<  tikcn  from  her  father's  houfe,  car- 
ried to  a  barn  about  a  mile,  there  raviihnl,  and  afterwards  nude  i,-fe  of  by  five, 
jin-ie  of  t!i.-k-  b.'iitos.  Numbers  o/  iiiibnco  of  the  fa  me  kind  of  behaviour  1 
am  aff.ircd  <:i  h.ive  luppcncd  :  here  their  brutlih  lui*;  v.ere  their  Uimulas;  but 
wanton  mifchi^t  wax  Icen  in  every  part  of  the  countr,'  c»-erv  thing  portable- 
they  plunder  an  J  carry  off,  neither  a;e  nor  fc.v,  Whi^  or  Tory,  is  ipared;  an 
ifuUfcriminate  ruin  intends  every  peribn  th.-y  mcer  with,  infants,  children,  old 
men  and  women,  arc  left  in  their  (him  without  a  blanket  to  cove;  them  in  thi* 
incK-mciit  L-.u">:i  ;  furnifir.-  of  every  kind  dd'troyed  or  burnt,  windows  and  doors 
broke  to  pice.-.-. ;  ia  ilioi :,  the  houk-s  left  unh.ioitable,  ai.d  the  |>eople  left  with- 
f;u'.  proviiL;:;,  for  every  horfc,  cow,  o\-,  1;..^  •  ^n  J  poultiy,  caniedoff:  a  blind 
old  gentleman  near  K-nnytown  plund.-rc.i  o.-'e/cry  thinj,  and  on  I::--  door  wrote, 
1  Capt.  Will:-  of  ihc  Royal  Irilh  did  thi^,.'  As  a  notablr  proof  of  their  regard 
and  favour  to  thei i  in'ei:.!:,  and  well-wiihers,  they  yellerday  busnt  the  elegant 
houfe  of  Daniel  Cox,  Efq;  at  Trenton -Ferr)',  who  has  bci/n  th  ;;  conllant  ad- 
voCP.t-.:,  and  llipporter  of  Toryilhi  in  that  ni:tci  the-  countrv  ;  tiri^  behaviour 
uf  theirs  h.;s  lo  e.vafper.Ucd  tlu-  peoph  of  ilv^  c  ...::ury,  tha:  they  are  flying  to 

rms,  and  ton:ii:i"  themfelvcs  into  j:  '.rties  tu  \\.iv-l.iytheav  and  cut  them  oil' 
wherever  they  can  Wet  with  th-.rn  :  this,  and  other  efforts  which  arc  making, 
1  horv  v.iil  f->  ItrJ^htcn  t!;e:n  t!i,;t  tliey  will  io,;:i  find  their  (ituitkm  very  difii- 
e  in  Ncw-J*rfcv.  Anoth-r  inltjuce  oi  their  brutalitv  happent'd  near 
Wocdbridge  :  One  of  the  mo. t  rifpcctaWe gendcmsnaa  that  p.vrt  of  the  coun- 
try w.i 3  alarmed  by  the  cries  and  ihriek?  of  a  mull  lovely  daughter;  he  found  an 
officer,  a  Britilli  officer,  in  the  act  of  raviihing  her,  he  iuftantly  put  him  to 
I'.-ath  ;  two  other  officers  ruilicd  in  with  fufecs,  and  fired  two  balls  into  the  fa- 

hcr,  who  is  now  languishing  under  his  wounds.  I  am  tired  of  this  horrid 
Lenc  ;  Ah:ir;hty  Juftice  cannot  fuffer  it  to  go  unpunished:  he  will  infpirit  his 
people  (wbp  only  claim  that  liberty  which  he  has  entitled  them  to)  to  do  them- 
klves  juliice,  to  rile  uuiverUlly  in  arms,  and  drive  vh.-fs  inVudir.g  tyrants  out 
•f  our  country. 

Publiiiied  by  order  of   the  Council  of  Safety, 

GEO.  13  I CK  HAM,  Secretary,  pro.  tern. 

:    fq&3££tf&)l&3&&&^^ 

Pnau-d    by    J  O  II  N     D  l-T  N  L  A  P.      


CONCERNING    HRJTISH    OUTRAGES 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

conscription, — English  opinion  had  never  tolerated 
that,  except  to  meet  invasion.  They  sent  to  America, 
therefore,  to  reinforce  General  Howe,  not  only  English 
soldiers  as  many  as  they  could  muster,  but  a  great 
force  of  German  troops  as  well,  hired  by  the  regiment, 
their  trained  officers  included,  from  the  Landgrave  of 
Hesse-Cassel  and  other  German  princes,  neighbors  to 
the  German  dominions  of  the  House  of  Hannover. 
It  was  close  upon  a  thousand  of  these  "Hessians" 
(for  the  colonists  knew  them  all  by  that  single  name) 
that  Washington  had  taken  at  Trenton,  but  not  until 
they  and  their  comrades  had  had  time  to  make  every 
country-side  from  New  York  to  the  Delaware  dread 
and  hate  them.  The  British  commanders  had  suf- 
fered their  men,  whether  English  or  foreign,  to  plunder 
houses,  insult  and  outrage  women,  destroy  fields  of 
grain,  and  help  themselves  to  wThat  the  towns  contained 
almost  as  ihey  pleased;  and  had  hardened  the  faces 
of  ten  of  the  angry  colonists  against  them  for  every 
one  who  made  submission  and  sought  to  put  himself 
on  their  side,  accordingly.  Their  marauding  parties 
made  little  distinction  between  friend  and  foe,  so  they 
but  got  what  they  wanted.  Washington  could  thank 
them  for  doing  more  to  check  defections  from  the  patri- 
otic party  than  he  could  possibly  do  for  himself  by 
carrying  out  the  orders  of  the  Congress  to  disarm  all 
loyalists  and  bring  recusants  to  a  sharp  reckoning. 

And  so  the  year  1777  dawned  like  a  first  year  of  settled 
war  and  revolution.  For  a  little  while,  at  the  outset 
of  the  J7ear,  the  Congress  made  Washington  practical 
dictator  in  every  affair  that  concerned  the  prosecution 
of  the  war.  It  authorized  long  enlistments,  moreover, 
instead  of  the  makeshift  enrolments  for  three  months 
266 


TAKE  NOTICE, 


.::.     i      P^B    V.         Hi 


RECRUITING    POSTER 

Editor's  Note.—  The  blurred  inscription  at  the  bottom  of  the  poster  reads  as  follows : 

That  tuesday,  Wednesday,  thursday,  friday,  and  Saturday,  at  Spotswood,  in  Middlesex 
county,  attendance  will  be  given  by  Lieutenant  Reading,  with  his  music  and  recruiting  party 

of company  in  Major  Shute's  Battalion  of  the  nth  regiment  of  infantry,  commanded 

by  Lieutenant  Colonel  Aaron  Ogden,  for  the   purpose  of  receiving  the  enrollment  of  such 
youth  of  spirit  as  may  be  willing  to  enter  into  this  honourable  service. 

The  Encouragement,  at  this  time,  to  enlist  is  truly  liberal  and  generous,  namely,  a  bounty 
of  twelve  dollars,  an  annual  and  fully  sufficient  supply  of  good  and  handsome  cloathing,  a  daily 
allowance  of  a  large  and  ample  ration  of  provisions,  together  with  sixty  dollars  a  year  in  gold 
and  silver  money  on  account  of  pay,  the  whole  of  which  the  soldier  may  lay  up  for  himself  and 
friends,  as  all  articles  proper  for  his  subsistence  and  comfort  are  provided  by  law,  without  any 
expence  to  him.  • 

Those  who  may  favour  this  recruiting  party  with  their  attendance  as  above  will  have  an 
opportunity  of  hearing  and  seeing  in  a  more  particular  manner  the  great  advantages  which 
these  brave  men  will  have  who  shall  embrace  this  opportunity  of  spending  a  few  happy  years 
in  viewing  the  different  parts  of  this  beautiful  continent,  in  the  honourable  and  truly  respectable 
character  of  a  soldier,  after  which  he  may,  if  he  pleases,  return  home  to  his  friends,  with  his 
pockets  full  of  money  and  his  head  covered  with  laurels. 

GOD  SAVE  THE  UNITED   STATES. 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

which  had  hitherto  kept  Washington's  army  always 
a-making  and  to  be  made,  dissolving  and  reforming 
month  by  month.  The  Congress  had,  it  is  true,  neither 
the  energy  nor  the  authority  it  needed.  It  could  get 
little  money  to  pay  the  troops;  its  agents  seriously 
mismanaged  the  indispensable  business  of  supplying 
the  army  with  stores  and  clothing;  and  the  men  de- 
serted by  the  score  in  disgust.  Washington  declared, 
in  the  summer  of  1777,  that  he  was  losing  more  men 
by  desertion  than  he  was  gaining  by  enlistment,  do 
what  he  would.  But  these  were  difficulties  of  adminis- 
tration. In  spite  of  all  dangers  and  discouragements, 
it  was  evident  that  the  continent  was  settling  to  its 
task.  And  the  end  of  the  year  showed  the  struggle 
hopefully  set  forward  another  stage. 

The  military  operations  of  that  memorable  year 
were  a  striking  illustration  of  the  magnitude  of  the 
task  the  British  generals  were  set  to  accomplish,  and 
of  their  singular  lack  of  the  energy,  decision,  and  de- 
spatch necessary  to  accomplish  it.  They  seemed  like 
men  who  dallied  and  dreamed  and  did  not  mean  to 
succeed.  They  planned  like  men  of  action,  but  then 
tarried  and  bungled  at  the  execution  of  their  plans. 
It  was  their  purpose  that  year  (1777)  to  strike  from 
three  several  directions  along  the  valley  of  the  Hudson, 
and  break  once  for  all  the  connection  between  the  New 
England  colonies  and  their  confederates.  General 
Burgoyne  was  to  move,  with  eight  thousand  men,  down 
Lake  Champlain;  Colonel  St.  Leger,  with  a  small  but 
sufficient  force,  along  a  converging  line  down  the  val- 
ley of  the  Mohawk,  from  Oswego  on  Ontario ;  and  Gen- 
eral Howe  was  to  meet  them  from  the  south,  moving 
in  strength  up  the  Hudson.  More  than  thirty -three 
268 


JOHN  BURGOYNE 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

thousand  men  would  have  effectually  swept  the  whole 
of  that  great  central  valley,  north  and  south,  when 
their  plan  was  executed.  But  it  was  not  executed. 
The  British  commanders  were  to  learn  that,  for  their 
armies,  the  interior  of  the  country  was  impracticable. 

Both  St.  Leger  and  Burgoyne  were  baffled  in  that 
vast  wilderness.  It  was  simple  enough  for  Burgoyne 
to  descend  the  lakes  and  take  once  again  the  forts  which 
guarded  them.  Even  Ticonderoga  he  took  without 
a  blow  struck.  A  precipitous  height,  which  the  Amer- 
icans had  supposed  inaccessible  by  any  sort  of  carriage, 
rose  above  the  strong  fortifications  of  the  place  beyond 
a  narrow  strip  of  water;  the  English  dragged  cannon 
to  its  summit ;  and  General  St.  Clair  promptly  withdrew 
in  the  night,  knowing  his  position  to  be  no  longer 
tenable.  But  it  was  another  matter  to  penetrate  the 
forests  which  lay  about  Lake  George  and  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Hudson  with  militiamen  out  of  every 
country-side  within  reach  swarming  thicker  and  thicker 
at  every  step  the  redcoats  took  into  the  depths  of  the 
perplexing  region.  A  thousand  men  Burgoyne  felt 
obliged  to  leave  at  Ticonderoga  for  the  sake  of  his  com- 
munications; close  upon  a  thousand  more  he  lost  (Au- 
gust 1 6th)  at  Bennington,  whither  he  had  sent  them  to 
seize  stores ;  and  by  the  time  he  had  reached  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Saratoga  with  the  six  thousand  left  him, 
fully  fourteen  thousand  provincials  beset  him.  He 
had  been  told  that  the  people  of  the  country  through 
which  he  was  to  pass  would  gladly  give  him  aid  and 
succor;  that  those  quiet  forests  of  Vermont  and  New 
York  would  even  yield  him,  it  might  be,  a  regiment 
or  two  of  loyalists  wherewith  to  recruit  his  ranks  when 
once  his  presence  there  should  give  the  secluded  settlers 
270 


THE  WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

heart  of  grace  to  declare  themselves  openly  for  the 
King.  Instead  of  that,  he  presently  had  a  formidable 
force  of  provincial  yeomanry  out  of  Vermont  dogging 


ARTHUR   ST.  CLAIR 


his  steps  under  General  Lincoln;  a  like  levy,  hurriedly 
drawn  together  out  of  New  Hampshire  and  Massa- 
chusetts, beat  and  captured  his  best  German  troops  at 
Bennington;  the  country  was  emptied  of  its  people 
271 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

and  of  its  cattle,  was  stripped  of  its  forage  even,  as  he 
advanced;  and  every  step  he  took  threatened  to  cut 
him  off  alike  from  his  sources  of  supply  and  from  his 
lines  of  retreat.  It  maddened  the  watchful  men  of 
those  scattered  homes  to  see  him  come  with  half  a  thou- 
sand savages  at  his  front.  It  had  been  bad  enough 
to  see  any  invaders  on  that  defenceless  border :  but  the 
presence  of  the  redskins  put  their  homes  and  their  lives 
in  immediate  and  deadly  peril,  and  they  mustered  as 
they  would  have  mustered  to  meet  a  threat  of  massacre. 
Burgoyne  himself  would  have  checked  his  savage 
allies  when  the  mischief  had  been  done  and  it  was  too 
late ;  but  he  only  provoked  them  to  desert  him  and  leave 
him  without  guides  in  an  almost  pathless  wilderness, 
without  appeasing  the  men  their  presence  had  brought 
swarming  upon  his  flanks. 

He  pushed  forward  nevertheless,  dogged,  indomit- 
able, determined  to  risk  everything  rather  than  fail 
of  his  rendezvous  with  Howe  and  St.  Leger  at  the 
Hudson.  And  yet  close  upon  the  heels  of  his  defeat 
and  heavy  loss  at  Bennington  came  news  that  St.  Leger 
had  already  failed.  Late  in  July,  St.  Leger  had  thrust 
his  way  cautiously  through  the  forests  from  Oswego 
to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mohawk;  and  there,  on  the 
3d  of  August,  he  had  set  himself  down  to  take  Fort 
Stanwix,  with  its  little  garrison  of  six  hundred  men 
under  Colonel  Peter  Gansevoort.  There,  if  any  where- 
in those  northern  forests  by  the  Mohawk,  might  men 
who  fought  in  the  name  of  the  King  look  to  be  bidden 
Godspeed  and  given  efficient  aid  and  counsel  by  the 
settlers  of  the  country-side  through  which  they  moved. 
There  William  Johnson  (Sir  William  since  the  French 
war)  had  reigned  supreme  for  a  long  generation,  his 
272 


SAMUEL   ADAMS 


THE  WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

energy,    subtlety,    quick   resource,    and    never   failing 
power  over  men  holding  the  restless  Iroquois  always 


BENJAMIN   LINCOLN 


to  their  loyalty  to  the  English,  the  English  always  to 
their  duty  to  the  crown.     Sir  William  had  been  dead 
these  three  years;  but  his  son,  Sir  John,  still  held  his 
u.-,8  273 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

ancient  allies  to  their  fealty  and  stood  at  the  front  of 
those  who  would  not  accept  the  revolution  wrought 
at  Boston  and  Williamsburg  and  Philadelphia.  This 


SIR    WILLIAM   JOHNSON 

war  among  the  English  sadly  puzzled  the  red  warriors 
of  the  forest.  War  between  the  king  of  the  French 
and  the  king  of  the  English  they  understood;  it  was  a 
war  of  hostile  peoples;  but  this  war  of  the  English 
274 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 


against  their  chiefs?  "You  are  two  brothers,"  they 
said,  "of  one  blood."  The  Mohawks  deemed  it  some 
subtile  treachery,  as  their  great  chief  did,  the  redoubt- 
able Joseph  Brant,  himself  trained  with  the  English 
boys  in  Mr.  Wheelock's  school  at  Lebanon  and  taught 
to  see  the  white 
man  close  at  hand ; 
and  the  Cayugas 
and  Senecas  fol- 
lowed them  in  their 
allegiance  to  the 
mighty  sachem 
who  "  lived  over  the 
great  lake,"  their 
friend  and  ally 
time  out  of  mind. 
The  Onondagas 
held  off,  neutral. 
The  Oneidas  and 
Tuscaroras,  among 
whom  Mr.  Kirk- 
land  was  mission- 
ary, aided  the  pa- 
triots when  they 
could,  because  he 
wished  it,  but 
would  not  take  the 
war-path.  There  were  white  loyalists,  too,  as  well  as 
red,  on  that  far  frontier.  Sir  John  Johnson  was  their 
leader.  Their  regiment  of  Royal  Greens,  together  with 
John  Butler's  Tory  rangers,  constituted  the  bulk  of 
St.  Leger's  motley  force  of  seventeen  hundred,  red  men 
and  white.  Scottish  highlanders,  stubborn  English- 


SIR  JOHN  JOHNSON 


VOL.      II. — 20 


275 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

men  hot  against  the  revolution,  and  restless  Irishmen, 
for  the  nonce  on  the  side  of  authority,  filled  their 
ranks. 


JOSEPH   BRANT 


But  even  there,  in  Sir  William  Johnson's  one-time 

kingdom,   enemies  of  King  and  Parliament  mustered 

stronger  yet,  and  showed  quicker  concert,  freer,  more 

instant   union   than   the   Tories.     There   were   Dutch 

276 


THE  WAR    FOR   INDEPENDENCE 


there,  and  Germans  and  Scots-Irish,  who  recked  nothing 
of  the  older  ties  that  had  bound  them  when  it  came  to 
the  question  whether  they  should  yield  in  their  own 
affairs  to  masters  over  sea.  Peter  Gansevoort  com- 
manded the  little  garrison  at  Stanwix;  Nicholas  Her- 
kimer  brought  eight 
hundred  men  to  his 
succor.  Brant  and 
Johnson  trapped  the 
stout  hearted  German 
in  a  deadly  ambush 
close  by  Oriskany  as 
he  came;  but  he  beat 
them  off.  While  that 
heroic  struggle  went 
forward  there  in  the 
close  ravine  the  hot 
morning  through  (Au- 
gust 6,  1777),  Ganse- 
voort made  sally  and 
sacked  Sir  John's 
camp.  Herkimer  could 
come  no  further;  but 
there  came,  instead, 

rumors  that  Burgoyne  PETER  GANSEVOORT 

was  foiled  and  taken 

and  the  whole  American  army  on  the  road  to  Stan- 
wix. It  was  only  Benedict  Arnold,  with  twelve  hun- 
dred Massachusetts  volunteers;  but  the  rumors  they 
industriously  sent  ahead  of  them  carried  the  panic 
they  had  planned,  and  when  they  came  there  was  no 
army  to  meet.  St.  Leger's  men  were  in  full  flight  to 
Oswego,  the  very  Indians  who  had  been  their  allies 
-277 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

harrying  them  as  they  went,  in  mere  wanton  savagery 
and  disaffection. 

Though  he  knew  now  that  St.  Leger  could  not  come, 
though  he  knew  nothing,  and  painfully  conjectured 
a  thousand  things,  of  Sir  William  Howe's  promised 
movement  below  upon  the  river,  Burgoyne  pushed 
forward  to  the  Hudson  and  crossed  it  (September  13, 
1777),  to  face  the  Americans  under  General  Gates  upon 
the  western  bank.  It  was  as  safe  to  go  forward  as  to 
turn  back.  Gates,  secure  within  his  intrenchments, 
would  not  strike ;  and  he,  his  supplies  instantly  threat- 
ened behind  him,  could  not  wait.  On  the  iQth  of  Sep- 
tember he  threw  four  thousand  men  forward  through 
the  forest  to  turn,  if  it  were  possible,  the  flank  of  Gen- 
eral Gates 's  army  where  it  lay  so  still  upon  Bemis's 
Heights  by  Stillwater.  But  Arnold  was  too  quick  for 
him.  With  three  thousand  men  Arnold  met  and  check- 
ed him,  moving  with  all  the  quick  audacity  and  impet- 
uous dash  of  which  he  had  given  Guy  Carleton  a  taste 
upon  Champlain  and  at  the  gates  of  Quebec,  Daniel 
Morgan  and  his  Virginian  riflemen  again  at  his  back 
as  they  had  been  at  far  Quebec.  His  stroke  having 
failed,  Burgoyne  lay  still  for  eighteen  tedious  days, 
waiting  once  more  for  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  now  at  last, 
he  knew,  actually  upon  the  river.  On  the  7th  of  Octo- 
ber he  struck  again.  Clinton  came  too  slowly.  Bur- 
goyne's  lines  of  communication  by  the  northern  lakes, 
long  threatened  by  General  Lincoln  and  his  Vermont- 
ers,  were  now  actually  cut  off,  and  it  was  possible  to 
calculate  just  how  few  days'  rations  remained  to  make 
his  campaign  upon.  He  tried  an  attack  with  picked 
men,  moving  quickly;  but  overwhelming  forces  met 
him,  and  the  inevitable  Arnold,  coming  upon  the  field 
278 


A    HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

when  he  was  already  beaten,  turned  his  defeat  almost 
into  a  rout.  He  withdrew  hopelessly  towards  Saratoga. 
Every  crossing  of  the  river  he  found  heavily  guarded 
against  him.  No  succor  came  to  him,  or  could  come, 
it  seemed,  either  from  the  west  or  from  the  south;  he 
could  find  no  safe  way  out  of  the  wilderness;  without 
aid,  the  odds  were  too  great  against  him;  and  on  the 
lyth  of  October  he  capitulated. 

General  Howe  had  moved  south  instead  of  north. 
He  fancied  that  it  would  bring  him  no  small  moral 
advantage  to  take  Philadelphia,  the  "capital"  of  the 
insurgent  confederacy ;  and  he  calculated  that  it  ought 
to  be  easily  possible  to  do  so  before  Burgoyne  would 
need  him  in  the  north.  Early  in  June,  accordingly, 
he  attempted  to  cross  the  Jerseys;  but  Washington, 
striking  from  Morristown,  threatened  his  flank  in  a 
way  which  made  him  hesitate  and  draw  back.  He 
returned  to  New  York,  and  put  eighteen  thousand  men 
aboard  his  transports,  to  get  at  Philadelphia  by  water 
from  the  south.  It  was  the  25th  of  August,  and  Bur- 
goyne was  needing  him  sorely  in  the  northern  forests, 
before  he  had  got  ready  for  his  land  movement.  He 
had  gone  all  the  long  way  round  about  into  Chesapeake 
Bay,  and  had  made  his  landing  at  the  Head  of  Elk,  in 
Maryland.  Washington  met  him  behind  the  fords  of 
the  Brandy  wine  (September  nth),  but  could  not  with- 
stand him.  He  could  only  delay  him.  Defeat  no  longer 
meant  dismay  for  the  Americans ;  Washington  acted  in 
force  as  steadily  and  effectively  after  defeat  as  after  vic- 
tory. It  was  the  2yth  of  September  before  Sir  William 
entered  Philadelphia.  Hs  was  hardly  settled  there  be- 
fore Washington  attacked  him  again,  at  his  outpost 
at  Germantown,  in  the  thick  mist  of  the  morning  of 
280 


THE   WAR   FOR    INDEPENDENCE 


SCENE  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  BRANDYWINE 

the  4th  of  October,  and  would  have  taken  the  place 
had  not  the  mist  confused  and  misled  his  own  troops. 
Meantime  Burgoyne  was  trapped  at  Saratoga.  On 
October  3d  Sir  Henry  Clinton  had  begun  at  last  the 
movement  from  New  York  for  Burgoyne's  relief  which 
ought  to  have  been  begun  in  midsummer, — carrying 
northward  a  strong  fleet  upon  the  river  and  an  army 
of  three  thousand  men.  But  it  was  too  late.  Bur- 
goyne's surrender  was  already  inevitable.  The  net 
result  of  the  campaign  was  the  loss  of  the  northern 
army  and  the  occupation  of  Philadelphia.  "Philadel- 
phia has  taken  Howe/'  laughed  Dr.  Franklin,  in  Paris, 
when  they  told  him  that  Howe  had  taken  Philadelphia. 
The  long,  slow  year  had  been  full  of  signs  both  good 
and  bad.  International  forces  were  beginning  to  work 
in  favor  of  the  insurgent  colonies.  From  the  outset 
281 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

France  and  Spain  had  been  willing  to  give  them  aid 
against  England,  their  traditional  rival  and  enemy. 
Since  the  summer  of  1776  they  had  been  promised 
French  and  Spanish  assistance  through  Beaumarchais, 
acting  ostensibly  as  the  firm  of  "Roderigue  Hortalez 
et  Cie./'  but  really  as  the  secret  agent  of  the  two  govern- 
ments; and  early  in  1777  the  fictitious  firm  had  begun 
actually  to  despatch  vessels  laden  with  arms  and  am- 
munition to  America.  Private  money  also  went  into 
the  venture,  but  governments  were  known  to  be  be- 
hind it;  and  on  January  5th,  1777,  Mr.  Franklin  had 
arrived  in  Paris  to  assist  in  bringing  France  into  still 
closer  touch  with  the  war  for  independence  over  sea. 
As  the  year  drew  towards  its  close  the  great  Frederick 
of  Prussia  had  forbidden  troops  hired  in  the  other  Ger- 
man states  to  cross  Prussian  territory  to  serve  the  Eng- 
lish in  America,  and  so  had  added  his  good-will  to  the 
French  and  Spanish  money.  French,  and  even  German 
and  Polish  officers,  too,  volunteered  for  service  in  the 
American  armies.  It  was  the  gallant  Polish  patriot 
Tadeusz  Kosciuszko  who  had  shown  General  Gates 
how  to  intrench  himself  upon  Bemis's  Heights. 

The  winter  was  deeply  disheartening,  nevertheless, 
for  Washington.  Having  failed  in  the  mist  at  Ger- 
mantown,  he  withdrew  his  army  to  Valley  Forge, 
whence  he  could  watch  Howe  at  Philadelphia,  and 
move  as  he  moved,  and  yet  himself  feel  safe  against 
attack;  but  utter  demoralization  had  fallen  upon  the 
Congress,  sitting  in  a  sort  of  exile  at  York,  and  his 
army  was  brought  to  such  straits  of  privation  and  suf- 
fering in  its  exposed  camp  as  he  had  never  been  obliged 
to  see  it  endure  before.  There  was  plenty  of  food  in 
the  country;  plenty  even  at  the  disposal  of  Congress 
282 


13  v     H:>     r   X   (;  1.  I.  L  !•;  X  C    V 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  ESQUIRE, 

GENERAL  and   C  l)  M  M  A  N  I)  K  R   in   Gil  ':  !•:  r    of   •.'  :   l-'o^c  ;•» 
•    of  the  UNIT::; 

BY  Virtue  ofr  the  Po\vcr  r.ru'i  Direction  to 
ciully  given,  I  hereby  enjoin  and  reqi 
reikliny;  within  levenrv   titles  ci  my  1.  rs   LG 

threfh  ••  <  >i  dicir  Cjr  ;in  by  the  i  tl  Day  of  Fi 

and  the  other  Half  by  the  ill  Day  of  March  nc\:  ei 
on   Puin,  in  Cafe  of  Failure,  of  !ia\  ing  all  t! 
niai'ri  in  Shcayes  after  the  Period  above  meniioncd,  ft-ixed 
by  the  Gominiilaries  and   Quarter-Ma_f!ei 
and  paid  for  as  Stra\v. 

Ci  I  \"  K  X  under  my  Hand,  a? Head  Barters ,  ;;.•./;• 
the  I'lillcy  Forge^  in  Philadelphia  Cfj!!;;fy^  this  ic.'b 
Day  of  December^  1777. 

G.     //  '  ^1  S  i-i   i   A    •  /    7   0 
By  His  Excellency's  (Jomn.and, 
ROBERT  H.  HARRISON',  Sec'y. 

!.  A   N   C   A  S  T  E   R;     P^STLD    ir     j   O   11   N      D   I'   N    I.     \ 


WASHINGTON'S  PROCLAMATION 


A    HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

and  in  the  stores  of  its  commissariat.  The  British  had 
overrun  very  little  of  the  fertile  country;  the  crops  had 
been  abundant  and  laborers  had  not  been  lacking  to 
gather  them  in, — especialty  there  in  thriving  Penn- 
sylvania. But  the  Congress  had  lost  all  vigor  alike 
in  counsel  and  in  action.  Men  of  initiative  had  with- 
drawn from  it  to  serve  their  states  in  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  their  several  governments  and  in  the  command 
of  forces  in  the  field.  Sometimes  scarcely  a  dozen 
members  could  be  got  together  to  take  part  in  its  de- 
liberations. It  yielded  to  intrigue, — even  to  intrigue 
against  Washington;  allowed  its  executive  committees, 
and  most  of  all  the  commissary  department,  upon  which 
the  army  depended,  to  fall  into  disorganization;  list- 
ened to  censures  and  bickerings  rather  than  to  plans 
of  action;  lost  the  respect  of  the  states,  upon  which 
its  authority  depended;  and  left  the  army  almost  to 
shift  for  itself  for  sustenance.  Fortunately  it  was  a 
mild  winter.  Fortunately  Washington  was  masterful 
and  indomitable,  and  proved  equal  to  checkmating 
at  a  single  move  those  who  intrigued  in  the  Congress 
to  displace  him.  Despite  every  bitter  experience  of 
that  dark  and  anxious  season,  he  had  when  spring 
came  an  army  stronger  and  fitter  for  service  than  it 
had  been  when  he  took  it  into  winter  quarters.  The 
lengthened  term  of  service  had  given  him  at  last  an 
army  which  might  be  drilled,  and  foreign  officers, — 
notably  the  capable  Steuben, — had  taught  him  how 
to  drill  it. 

General   Howe's   winter  passed   easily  and  merrily 

enough  in  Philadelphia.     Tne  place  was  full  of  people 

of  means  and  influence  who  hoped  as  heartily  as  Mr. 

Galloway  did  for  the  success  of  the  British  arms.    Some 

284 


THE  WAR   FOR    INDEPENDENCE 

of  the  leading  Quakers  of  the  town,  whose  influence 
was  all  for  an  accommodation  of  the  quarrel  with  the 
mother  country,  had  been  arrested  the  previous  sum- 


BAKON    DE 


mer  (1777)  and  sent  south  by  the  patriot  leaders;  but 
many  more  were  left  who  were  of  their  mind,  and  Gen- 
eral Howe  met  something  like  a  welcome  when  he  came 
in  the  autumn.  The  fashionable  young  women  of 
285 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

the  town  were  delighted  to  look  their  best  and  to  use 
their  charms  to  the  utmost  at  all  the  balls  and  social 
gatherings  that  marked  the  gay  winter  of  his  stay, 
and  their  parents  were  not  displeased  to  see  them  shine 
there.  But  for  the  soldiers'  coats  one  would  have 
thought  that  peace  had  come  again. 

But  the  minds  of  the  ministers  in  England  were  not 
so  much  at  ease.  In  February,  1778,  Lord  North  in- 
troduced and  pressed  through  Parliament  conciliatory 
measures  of  the  most  radical  sort,  practically  retrac- 
ing every  misjudged  step  taken  with  regard  to  the  col- 
onies since  1763;  and  commissioners  of  peace  were 
sent  to  America  with  almost  plenipotentiary  powers 
of  accommodation.  But  that  very  month  a  formal 
treaty  of  alliance  was  signed  between  France  and  the 
United  States;  by  the  time  the  peace  commissioners 
reached  Philadelphia,  England  had  a  war  with  France 
on  her  hands  as  well  as  a  war  with  the  colonies;  there 
was  no  rejoicing  in  the  camp  at  Valley  Forge  over  the 
news  of  Lord  North's  unexpected  turn  of  purpose,  but 
there  was  very  keen  rejoicing  when  news  of  the  French 
alliance  came.  The  Congress  would  not  treat  with 
the  commissioners.  Conciliation  had  come  too  late; 
for  the  colonies  the  aspect  of  the  war  was  too  hopeful. 

When  the  commissioners  reached  Philadelphia  they 
found  General  Clinton  about  to  abandon  it.  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  had  succeeded  General  Howe  in  chief  com- 
mand in  May.  His  orders  were  to  evacuate  Phila- 
delphia and  concentrate  his  forces  once  more  at  New 
York.  The  town  was  as  full  of  excitement  and  dis- 
may at  the  prospect  as  it  had  been  but  a  little  more 
than  a  year  ago  at  news  of  the  British  approach.  When 
the  army  began  to  move,  three  thousand  loyalists 
286 


On  Monday, 

The  SIXTEENTH  Inftant,  ^Tvlruay  ///?. 

At  the  Theatre  in  Southwark, 

For  the  Benefit  of  a  PUBLIC  CHARITY, 

•Willbe  reprefentedaComedy 

CALLED     THE 

Conftant  Couple, 

TO    WHICH    WILL    BE    ADDED, 

DUKE  AND  NO  DUKE. 

The  CHARACTERS  by  the  OFFICERS  of  the  ARMY 
and  NAVY. 

TICKETS  to  be  had  at  the  Printer's:  at  die  CoRee-houfe  in  Market- 

ftreet:  and  at  the  Pennfi  Ivania  Farmer,  near  the  New-Market,  and 

no  where  elfe. 

BOXES  and  PIT,  ONE  DOLLAR. — GALLERY,  HALT  A  DOLLAR. 

Doors  to  open  at  Five  o'Clock,.  and  begin  precifely  at  Seven. 

No  Money  will,  on  any  Account,  be  taken  at  the  Door. 

Gentlemen  are  earneftly  requefted  not  to  attempt  to  bribe  the 
Door-keepers. 

.  N.  B.  Places  for  the  Boxes  to  be  taken  at  the  Office  of  the 
Theatre  in  Front-flreet,  between  the  Hours  of  Nine  and  Two  o'clock: 
After  which  Time,  the  Box-keeper  will  not  attend.  Ladies  or  Gen- 
tlemen, who  would  have  Places  kept  for  them,  are  defiied  to  fend 
their  Servants -to  the  Theatre  at  Four  o'clock,  otherwife  their  Places 
will  be  given  up. 


FHILADtLPHIA.     P*tNTu>  ar     J_AM£S    HUMPHREYS.    J  < 
FACSIMILE  OF   PLAY   BILL 


A  HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

abandoned  the  town  with  it,  going  with  the  stores  by 
sea,  while  Sir  Henry  took  his  fifteen  thousand  men 
overland  through  the  Jerseys  again. 

When  he  moved,  Washington  moved  also;  outstrip- 
ped him;  caught  him  at  a  disadvantage  at  Monmouth 
Court  House  (June  28,  1778);  and  would  inevitably 
have  beaten  him  most  seriously  had  not  Charles  Lee 
again  disobeyed  him  and  spoiled  the  decisive  move- 
ment of  the  day, — Charles  Lee,  the  soldier  of  fortune 
whom  the  Americans  had  honored  and  trusted.  He 
had  disobeyed  before,  when  Washington  was  retreat- 
ing hard  pressed  from  New  York.  This  time  he  seemed 
to  play  the  coward.  It  was  not  known  until  afterwards 
that  he  had  played  the  traitor,  too.  Clinton  got  off, 
but  in  a  sort  of  rout,  leaving  his  wounded  behind  him. 
"Clinton  gained  no  advantage  except  to  reach  New 
York  with  the  wreck  of  his  army,"  was  the  watchful 
Frederick's  comment  over  sea.  "America  is  probably 
lost  for  England." 

Even  the  seas  were  no  longer  free  for  the  movements 
of  the  British  fleets,  now  that  France  was  America's 
ally  and  French  fleets  were  gathering  under  orders 
for  the  American  coast.  Every  month  the  war  had 
lasted  the  English  had  found  their  commerce  and  their 
movement  of  stores  and  transports  more  and  more 
embarrassed  by  the  American  privateersmen.  There 
were  bold  and  experienced  seamen  at  every  port  of  the 
long  coast.  The  little  vessels  which  were  so  easily 
set  up  and  finished  by  skilful  carpenters  and  riggers 
in  almost  any  quiet  inlet  were  sure  to  be  fast  and  deftly 
handled  when  they  got  to  sea;  kept  clear  of  his  Maj- 
esty's fleets  and  of  too  closely  guarded  harbors ;  cruised 
whithersoever  the  wits  of  their  sagacious  masters  took 
288 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

them;  and  had  generally  to  be  heavily  overmatched 
to  be  beaten.  They  had  taken  more  than  five  hundred 
British  soldiers  from  the  transports  before  the  Con- 


CUARLES   LEE 


gress  at  Philadelphia  had  uttered  its  Declaration  of 
Independence.     Their  prizes  numbered  more  than  four 
hundred  and  fifty  the  year  of  Saratoga  and  Brandy- 
11—19  289 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

wine  and  the  fight  in  the  morning's  mist  at  German- 
town,  though  there  were  seventy  ships  of  war  upon 
the  coast.  The  very  coasts  of  England  herself  were 
not  safe  against  them.  Mr.  Franklin  went  to  France 
in  the  autumn  of  1776  with  his  pocket  full  of  blank 
letters  of  marque,  and  American  privateersmen  from 
out  the  French  ports  caught  prizes  enough  in  English 
waters  to  keep  the  commissioners  in  Paris  well  found 
in  money  for  their  plans.  In  January,  1778,  Captain 
Rathburne,  in  the  Providence,  actually  seized  the  fort 
in  the  harbor  of  Nassau  in  New  Providence  of  the  Ba- 
hamas, and  took  possession  of  town  and  shipping; 
and  in  the  spring  of  that  same  year  John  Paul  Jones 
performed  the  same  daring  feat  at  Whitehaven  by 
Solway  Firth  in  England  itself. 

These  privateersmen,  it  turned  out,  were  more  to  be 
feared  for  the  present  than  the  fleets  of  France.  The 
Count  d'Estaing  was,  indeed,  despatched  to  America 
with  twelve  ships  of  the  line  and  six  frigates,  with  four 
thousand  troops  aboard;  and  his  fleet  appeared  off 
Sandy  Hook  in  midsummer,  1778,  while  Sir  Henry 
Clinton  was  still  fresh  from  his  fright  at  Monmouth. 
But  the  too  cautious  admiral  came  and  went,  and  that 
was  all.  He  would  not  attempt  an  attack  upon  the 
English  fleet  within  the  bay  at  New  York,  though  it 
was  of  scarcely  half  his  strength.  His  pilots  told  him 
his  larger  ships  could  not  cross  the  bar.  Newport 
was  the  only  other  harbor  the  English  held;  and  there 
he  allowed  Lord  Howe  to  draw  him  off.  A  storm  sep- 
arated the  fleets  before  they  could  come  to  terms,  and 
his  cruise  ended  peaceably  in  Boston  harbor.  But  it 
was  a  heavy  thing  for  England  to  have  French  fleets 
to  reckon  with,  and  embarrassments  thickened  very 
290 


THE   WAR    FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

ominously  about  her.     She  had  absolutely  no  hold  on 
America,  it  seemed,  outside  the  lines  actually  occupied 

IN     CONGRESS, 

WEDNESDAY.    AHILJ,    1776. 
INSTRUCTIONS  t,tl*  COMMANDOS  ef  Prkat.- Sty,  *•  rftb.ftr*. 

vKcbjktU  fc-.v  C«HK>«  «•  Lflttn ,,/ Mirqv  anj  Rtfrifal.  Mfr.fa  t&-«  „  *sl- 
Cfftum  cf  Bruift  ff/f/j  and  Corgors. 

YO  U  H.IT.   by  Fort.  oT  Arms  attack,   f-.!>due.'  InJ  like  ill  Sk.o,  jml  other  Vrifch  belong;  to  ike 
lnh.b.u.1,  of  Gre».B,iui.,  or,  Ik.  H,ah  S,,,;  or  between  h,;k  W,  ,«  ,„, 
Skip  and  Veffc;,  brinync  Pcrfcns  .bo  I>ta4  to  folk  jnd  rc&k  ..  ihc  U.,»d 


or  Pc?l£,^ibeIcLpa»y  of  <^cr7  Sh.?  or  VVJil  br  T<L  nhm.  «  fen  tf^^^^L  £-7*.   lo  «W 

•*h,(h  a.;  be  propoaadc..  CDaching  the  Inter-.!  o.  Pioyer*  7  of  UK  Stupor  VeflH  and  b«f  Liiwi;  ;  m*  M  cke'tMM 
TICM  yo«  Ci.:t  Crii»er  w  cwfe  to  be  delivered  to  ch<  JUJ^  or  Ju^n.'-Jl  PJt-s  Se.wB«efi.  durtcr.Pinkt, 
Glib  o(  L*fia»,  Cockm,  Leners,  aadotkei  Oocuncau  uxi  Wri:ingi  fMind  on  Board,  pro*.**  ttw  (uJjWr, 
^ ^,h*ASda.a rf yo^U.  ordffon.  ixkc,  Perfa, p-efcnt „ .be Cao«.^ „  k,  , nrf.ed a,  tke,  wererece,^,^ 


Yo.  aV^lkeeoiMprcfcrre  troy  •Skip  or  V,ll<l  and  Cirjo  ty  ro.r.ken..at;l  the,  ftill  b;  SetueMt  of  « 

c~"  ""S'B^kcJS1*  ;>di»j^  '"f°1rpckT.rx  fe"k.fdo.T:  oci  Wlt^' "  **" JkJ°:  tW  *"  °* 

VL 
Iftwsor  airyof  yoor  O«een  «  Crew  Hun,  ,n  cold  Blood,  kill  or  maim,  or,  Vr  Torwre  or  otierwiia 

erotiiy.  \+m^S~m^m-~Vi*lmt1*r**~«*fml1l**Zi,Wm.m*Zi,l3 

aWoFPerfan«f«pria«di«tkeSbiporVe.Vlp»iflulltake,  tie  (Minder  dull  be  fnrnly  puulVd. 

to. 

Yo.ta».   ky  in  eorm«ie»t  Oppoctuuocs   fc«J  to-Coojrdi  .written  AceMnti  of  ike  Captom  TO.  tnd| 
nuke,  wuk  ike  Nwa*er  aod  Kuon  of  the  C.po=s  COOK,  of  yoo  Jo.no!  horn  Time  to  Tine,  and  lowllK. 


Ooe  TVW,  X  Ike  ka«,  of  roar  wkch  Coeacany  fhaU  be  Lanl-Mn. 
IX. 

e  aoy  Prifjoen  or  Captim,  katfU] 

Jsl^^coL'XT"^ 


If  r~  Hull  do  an,  Tku»j  eemrar.  fo  tkefc  U»n»a««,  «e  to  olben  baolter  to  be  ji«^  or  ^Tkn,l,  f JTrf 
fack  Tkia.;  to  be  dooe,  jo.  dull  oot  only  brfek  Ton  Com-iSoo,  a«4  ke  liiNe  to  an.  Acton  for  frock  of  i»« 
C«rtuc«ofro»rBood,  bubcrripooibU  to  lie  Pan;  (rieitd  fo.  Dinup.  (JluoeJ  bjfwi  Ma|.mCatiob 


REDUCED   FACSIMILE   OF   INSTRUCTIONS  FROM 
CONGRESS   TO    PRIVATEERS 

by  her  armies  at  Newport  and  New  York;  the  very 
sea  was  beset,  for  her  merchantmen;  and  France  was 
now  kindled  into  war  against  her. 


VOL.       II.—  21 


A   HISTORY    OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 


And  yet  the  Americans,  too,  were  beset.  They  had 
not  only  their  long  coasts  to  watch  and  British  armies 
to  thwart  and  checkmate,  but  their  western  borders  also 
to  keep,  against  Tory  and 
savage.  The  Iroquois  coun- 
try, in  particular,  and  all 
the  long  valleys  of  the  Mo- 
hawk, the  Unadilla,  and  the 
Susquehanna,  were  filled 
with  the  terrors  of  raid  and 
massacre  throughout  that 
disappointing  and  anxious 
summer  of  1778.  The  stub- 
born loyalists  of  the  forest 
country,  with  their  temper 
still  of  the  untamed  high- 
lands of  old  Scotland  or  of 
the  intractable  country-sides 
of  old  England,  had  been 
driven  into  exile  by  the  un- 
compromising patriots,  their 
neighbors,  who  outnumbered 
them.  But  they  had  not 
gone  far.  They  had  made 
their  headquarters,  the  more 
dogged  and  determined  of 
them,  at  Niagara,  until  this 
score  should  be  settled.  Sir 
John  Johnson  was  still 

their  leader,  for  all  he  had  been  so  discomfited  before 
Fort  Stanwix;  and  John  Butler  and  Walter  Butler, 
father  and  son,  men  touched  with  the  savagery  of  the 
redmen,  their  allies.  Joseph  Brant,  that  masterful 
292 


CONTINENTAL   LOTTERY    BOOK 


THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

spirit  who  was  a  sort  of  self-appointed  king  among 
the  savage  Mohawks,  did  not  often  willingly  forget 
the  precepts  of  that  Christian  creed  to  which  good  Mr. 
Wheelock  had  drawn  him  in  his  boyhood,  and  held 
the  redmen  back  when  he  could  from  every  wanton 
deed  of  blood;  but  the  Butlers  stopped  at  nothing,  and 
white  men  and  red  made  common  cause  against  the 
border  settlements.  Their  cruel  strokes  were  dealt 
both  far  and  near.  Upon  a  day  in  July,  1778,  never 
to  be  forgotten,  twelve  hundred  men  fell  upon  the  far- 
away Wyoming  Valley  upon  the  Susquehanna  and 
harried  it  from  end  to  end  until  it  was  black  and  deso- 
late. In  November  a  like  terrible  fate  fell  upon  peace- 
ful Cherry  Valley,  close  at  hand.  There  could  be  no 
peace  or  quarter  until  the  hands  of  these  men  were 
stayed. 

But,  though  very  slowly,  the  end  came.  The  men 
who  mustered  in  the  patriotic  ranks  knew  the  forest 
and  were  masters  of  its  warfare.  They  had  only  to 
turn  to  it  in  earnest  to  prevail.  There  were  men  upon 
the  border,  too.  who  needed  but  a  little  aid  and  coun- 
tenance to  work  the  work  of  pioneer  statesmen  on  the 
western  rivers.  Most  conspicuous  among  these  was 
George  Rogers  Clark,  the  young  Saxon  giant  who,  in 
1777,  left  his  tasks  as  pioneer  and  surveyor  on  the  lands 
which  lay  upon  the  south  of  the  great  river  Ohio  in 
far  Kentucky,  Virginia's  huge  western  county,  and 
made  his  way  back  to  the  tide-water  country  to  propose 
to  Mr.  Henry,  now  governor  of  the  revolutionized  com- 
monwealth, an  expedition  for  the  conquest  of  the 
"Illinois  country"  which  lay  to  the  north  of  the  river. 
He  was  but  five-and-twenty,  but  he  had  got  his  stal- 
wart stature  where  men  came  quickly  into  their  powers, 
293 


REDUCED   FACSIMILE  OF  THE   FIRST   AND   LAST   PARTS   OF   PATRICK 

HENRY'S  LETTER  OF  INSTRUCTIONS  TO  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK 


THE  WAR   FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

deep  in  the  forests,  where  he  had  learned  woodcraft 
and  had  already  shown  his  mettle  among  men.  Mr. 
Henry  and  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Wythe  and  Mr. 


GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK 


Madison,  whom  he  consulted,  approved  his  purpose 
very  heartily.  It  was  a  thing  which  must  be  prepared 
for  very  quietly,  and  pushed,  when  once  begun,  with 
secrecy  and  quick  despatch;  but  the  mustering  of  men 
295 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

and  the  gathering  of  munitions  and  supplies  were  in- 
cidents which  made  no  stir  in  those  days  of  familiar 
war.  Clark  could  bring  together  what  force  he  pleased 
at  Pittsburgh,  and  excite  only  the  expectation  that  a 
new  band  of  armed  men  were  about  to  set  out  for  the 
frontiers  of  Kentucky.  In  May,  1778,  he  was  ready. 
He  took  but  one  hundred  and  eighty  picked  riflemen,  a 
modest  flotilla  of  small  boats,  and  a  few  light  pieces 
of  artillery,  but  they  sufficed.  Before  the  summer 
was  out  he  had  gained  easy  mastery  of  the  little  settle- 
ments which  lay  to  the  northward  upon  the  Mississippi 
and  within  the  nearer  valley  of  the  Wabash.  He  had 
an  infinitely  pleasing  way  of  winning  the  friendship 
of  men  upon  any  border,  and  the  Frenchmen  of  the 
settlements  of  the  Illinois  country  relished  the  change 
he  promised  them,  liked  well  enough  the  prospect  of  be- 
ing quit  of  the  English  power.  There  were  few  Eng- 
lishmen to  deal  with. 

When  winter  came  Colonel  Hamilton,  the  British 
commander  at  Detroit,  came  south  into  the  forest  with 
a  motley  force  of  five  hundred  men,  mixed  of  regulars, 
Tories,  and  Indians,  such  as  St.  Leger  had  taken  against 
Stanwix,  and  occupied  Vincennes  again,  upon  the 
Wabash ;  but  Clark  struck  once  more,  sending  his  boats 
up  the  river  and  bringing  his  picked  force  straight  across 
the  frozen  forests  from  Kaskaskia  by  the  Mississippi; 
and  by  the  end  of  February,  1779,  Colonel  Hamilton 
and  all  his  levy  were  his  prisoners.  The  Illinois  coun- 
try was  added  to  Virginia,  and  the  grant  of  her  ancient 
charter,  "up  into  the  land,  west  and  northwest,"  seem- 
ed made  good  again  by  the  daring  of  her  frontiersmen. 
He  could  have  taken  Detroit  itself,  Clark  declared, 
with  but  a  few  hundred  men.  While  he  cleared  the 
296 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

northern  rivers  of  the  British  arms  a  force  like  his  own 
descended  the  Mississippi,  seized  Natchez,  and  cleared 
the  southern  reaches  of  the  great  stream. 
That  winter  had  witnessed  a  sharp  shifting  of  the 


GEORGE  CLARK'S  FINAL  SUMMONS  TO  COLONEL  HAMILTON  T< 

scene  of  the  war  in  the  east.  The  British  command- 
ers there  had  turned  away  from  General  Washington 
and  the  too  closely  guarded  reaches  of  the  Hudson  to 
try  for  better  fortune  in  the  far  south.  In  December, 
1778,  Clinton  sent  thirty-five  hundred  men  from  New 
297 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

York  to  the  southern  coasts  by  sea,  and  on  the  29th 
Savannah  was  taken,  with  comparative  ease,  there 
being  but  a  scant  six  hundred  to  defend  it.  The  town 
once  taken,  it  proved  an  easy  matter,  at  that  great 
remove  from  the  centre  of  the  American  strength,  to 
overrun  the  country  back  of  it  during  the  early  weeks 
of  1779.  But  after  that  came  delay  again,  and  inac- 
tion, as  of  those  who  wait  and  doubt  what  next  to  do. 
The  new  year  saw  nothing  else  decisive  done  on  either 
side.  In  April  Spain  made  common  cause  with  France 
against  England;  but  Washington  waited  in  vain 
the  year  through  to  see  the  righting  transferred  to 
America.  A  few  strategic  movements  about  New 
York,  where  Clinton  lay;  a  few  raids  by  the  British; 
a  few  sharp  encounters  that  were  not  battles,  and  the 
year  was  over.  The  British  made  sallies  here  and 
there,  to  pillage  and  burn,  to  keep  the  country  in  awe 
and  bring  off  whatever  they  could  lay  hands  upon, 
striking  sometimes  along  the  coast  as  far  as  Connec- 
ticut and  even  the  Chesapeake  at  the  south ;  but  armed 
bands  were  quick  to  muster  to  oppose  and  harass  them 
wherever  they  went,  and  it  was  never  safe  for  them  to 
linger.  Clinton  thrust  his  lines  out  upon  the  river 
and  fortified  Stony  Point ;  but  Anthony  Wayne  stormed 
the  place  of  a  sudden,  with  twelve  hundred  men,  and 
took  it,  with  unshotted  guns  at  the  point  of  the  bayo- 
net before  dawn  on  the  morning  of  the  I5th  of  July, 
and  brought  more  than  five  hundred  prisoners  away 
with  him,  having  come  with  that  quick  fury  of  reck- 
less attack  which  made  men  call  him  Mad  Anthony, 
and  having  as  quickly  withdrawn  again.  Harry  Lee 
stormed  Paulus  Hook  in  like  fashion,  and  the  British 
were  nowhere  very  easy  within  their  lines.  But,  for 
298 


THE  WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

the  rest,  there  was  little  to  break  the  monotony  of  wait- 
ing for  news  of  the  war  at  England's  door,  where  the 
fleets  of  the  allies  threatened  her.  Privateersmen  were 


CHARLES   JAMES  FOX 


as  busy  as  ever,  and  as  much  to  be  feared,  almost,  as 
the  French  cruisers  themselves;  but  the  formal  oper- 
ations of  the  war  seemed  vaguely  postponed.  With- 
out the  co-operation  of  a  naval  force  it  was  impossible 
299 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

for  Washington  to  do  anything  against  Sir  Henry 
at  New  York. 

While  he  waited,  therefore,  he  despatched  General 
Sullivan  with  five  thousand  men  into  the  forest  coun- 
try of  the  Mohawk  and  the  Susquehanna  to  make  an 
end  of  the  cruel  mischief  wrought  upon  defenceless 
homes  by  the  bitter  Tories  and  their  red  allies.  The 
little  army,  sent  forward  in  divisions,  swept  through 
the  country  it  was  bidden  clear  like  men  who  searched 
stream  and  valley  upon  a  journey  of  discovery ;  con- 
verged to  meet  their  hunted  foes,  but  fifteen  hundred 
strong,  where  they  lay  at  bay  within  a  bend  of  the 
Chemung, — the  full  rally  of  the  forest  country,  British 
regulars,  Tory  rangers,  Indian  braves,  Johnson,  the 
Butlers,  Joseph  Brant,  every  leader  they  acknowl- 
edged, united  to  direct  them, — and  overwhelmed  them; 
ravaged  the  seats  of  Seneca  and  Cayuga  far  and  near, 
till  neither  village  nor  any  growing  thing  that  they 
could  find  upon  which  men  could  subsist  was  left  this 
side  the  Genesee;  stopped  short  only  of  the  final  thing 
they  had  been  bidden  attempt,  the  capture  of  the  strong- 
hold at  Niagara  itself. 

That  was  a  summer's  reckoning  which  redmen  far 
and  near  were  not  likely  to  forget.  In  April  a  little 
army  of  frontiersmen  under  Colonel  Evan  Shelb}T, 
that  stout  pioneer  out  of  Maryland  who  brought  hot 
Welsh  blood  to  the  task,  swept  suddenly  along  the 
northwrard  reaches  of  the  Tennessee  and  harried  the 
country  of  the  Chickamaugas,  among  whom  Tories 
and  British  alike  had  been  stirring  war.  In  August, 
Colonel  Brodhead,  ordered  to  co-operate  with  General 
Sullivan,  had  taken  six  hundred  men  from  his  post 
at  Fort  Pitt,  whence  Clark  had  make  his  exit  into  the 
300 


JOHN    SULLIVAN 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

west,  and  had  destroyed  the  Indian  settlements  by  the 
Alleghany  and  upon  French  Creek,  the  old  routes  of 
the  French  from  the  lakes  to  the  Ohio.  Such  work 
was  never  finished.  The  Indians  were  for  a  little  dis- 
lodged, disconcerted,  and  put  to  sad  straits  to  live; 


CASIMIR    PULASKI 


but  they  were  not  conquered.  The  terror  bred  a  deeper 
thirst  for  vengeance  among  them,  and  a  short  respite 
of  peace  was  sure  to  be  followed  when  a  new  year  came 
in  with  fresh  flashes  of  war  on  the  border,  as  lurid 
and  ominous  as  ever.  The  danger  was  lessened,  never- 
theless. The  final  conquest  of  the  Indian  country 
was  at  least  begun.  The  backwoodsmen  were  with- 
302 


THE  WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 

in  sight  of  ultimate  mastery  when  once  peace  should 
bring  settlers  crowding  westward  again. 

The  fighting  at  sea  that  memorable  year  of  doubt 
was  of  a  like  import, — full  of  daring  and  stubborn  cour- 
age, planned  and  carried  through  with  singular  initia- 
tive and  genius,  quick  with  adventure,  bright  with 
every  individual  achievement,  but  of  necessity  with- 
out permanent  consequence.  Late  in  July,  1779, 
Captain  Paul  Jones  had  sailed  from  a  port  of  France 
in  command  of  a  little  squadron,  half  American,  half 
French,  with  which  the  energy  of  Mr.  Franklin  had 
supplied  him.  His  flagship,  the  Bon  Hommc  Richard, 
was  a  worn-out  French  East  Indiaman,  fitted  with  forty 
guns,  many  of  which  were  unserviceable;  his  French 
consorts  were  light  craft,  lightly  armed ;  only  one  ship 
of  the  squadron  was  fully  fit  for  the  adventures  he 
promised  himself,  having  come  fresh  from  the  stocks 
in  America,  and  she  was  intrusted  to  the  command 
of  a  French  captain  who  obeyed  orders  or  not,  as  he 
pleased.  But  Jones  was  a  man  to  work  with  what 
he  had,  and  made  even  that  improvised  fleet  suffice. 
With  it  he  cruised  the  whole  length  of  the  western  coast 
of  Ireland  and  circled  Scotland.  Off  Flamborough 
Head  he  fell  in  with  the  Serapis,  44,  and  the  Countess 
of  Scarborough,  20,  the  convoy  of  a  fleet  of  merchant- 
men, and  himself  took  the  larger  ship  almost  unas- 
sisted in  a  desperate  fight  after  sunset,  in  the  first 
watch  of  the  night  of  the  23d  of  September.  Neither 
ship  survived  the  encounter  forty-eight  hours,  so  com- 
pletely had  they  shot  each  other  to  pieces,  and  no 
man  who  followed  the  sea  was  likely  to  forget  what  he 
heard  of  that  close  grapple  in  the  gathering  night  in 
the  North  Sea.  "If  I  fall  in  with  him  again,  I  will 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

make  a  lord  of  him,"  Jones  exclaimed,  when  he  heard 
that  the  King  had  knighted  Captain  Pearson,  of  the 
Serapis,  for  the  gallant  fight. 


JOHN    PAUL  JONES 


For  a  little,  in  the  autumn,  it  looked  as  if  the  naval 
aid  for  which  General  Washington  waited  had  come 
at  last.  The  Count  d'Estaing  was  in  the  West  Indies 
with  a  strong  fleet,  from  an  encounter  with  which  the 
English  commander  in  those  waters  had  drawn  off  to 
304 


THE   FIGHT  BETWEEN   BON   HOMME   RICHARD   AND   SERAP1S 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

port  again  to  refit.  The  count  was  willing,  while  his 
hands  were  free,  to  co-operate  in  an  attack  upon  the 
southern  coast  at  Savannah.  A  portion  of  Washing- 
Ion's  army  was  sent  south  to  join  General  Lincoln  in 
South  Carolina  for  the  attempt.  Count  d'Estaing 
put  six  thousand  troops  aboard  his  fleet,  and  by  the 
1 6th  of  September  was  within  the  harbor.  But  he  did 
not  strike  quickly  or  boldly  enough,  took  the  slow  way 
of  siege  to  reduce  the  place,  suffered  the  English  com- 
mander to  make  good  both  the  rally  of  his  scattered 
force  and  the  fortification  of  his  position,  and  had  done 
nothing  when  it  was  high  time  for  him  to  be  back  in 
the  Indies  to  guard  the  possessions  of  his  own  king 
against  the  English.  A  last  assault  (October  9th) 
failed  and  he  withdrew. 

The  next  year  a  like  disappointment  was  added.  In 
midsummer  a  French  fleet  arrived  upon  the  northern 
coast,  but  it  proved  impossible  to  use  it.  On  the  loth  of 
July  a  French  squadron  put  in  at  Newport  and  landed  a 
force  of  six  thousand  men  under  the  Comte  de  Rocham- 
beau;  but  a  powerful  British  fleet  presently  blockaded 
the  port,  and  Rochambeau  could  not  prudently  with- 
draw while  the  fleet  was  threatened.  He  had  been 
ordered  to  put  himself  at  General  Washington's  dis- 
posal; but  he  could  not  do  so  till  the  blockade  was 
raised.  Meanwhile  not  only  Georgia  but  the  entire 
South  seemed  lost  and  given  over  to  British  control. 
In  the  spring,  Clinton  had  concentrated  all  his  forces 
once  more  at  New  York;  and  then,  leaving  that  all- 
important  place  strong  enough  to  keep  Washington 
where  he  was,  he  had  himself  taken  eight  thousand 
men  by  sea  to  Charleston.  Two  thousand  more  troops, 
already  in  the  South,  joined  him  there,  and  by  the 
306 


WASHINGTON   AND   ROCHAMBEAU   IN   THE  TRENCHES   AT   YORKTOWN 

VOL.        II. 22 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

1 2th  of  May  (1780)  he  had  taken  not  only  the  place 
itself,  but  General  Lincoln  and  three  thousand  men 
besides.  South  Carolina  teemed  with  loyalists.  Parti- 
san bands,  some  serving  one  side,  some  the  other,  swept 
and  harried  the  region  from  end  to  end.  Wherever  the 
British  moved  in  force,  they  moved  as  they  pleased, 
and  were  masters  of  the  country.  In  June  General 
Clinton  deemed  it  already  safe  to  take  half  his  force 
back  to  New  York,  and  Cornwallis  was  left  to  complete 
the  work  of  subjugation. 

That  same  month  the  Congress  conferred  the  chief 
command  in  the  South  upon  General  Horatio  Gates, 
who  had  been  in  command  of  the  army  to  which  Bur- 
goyne  had  surrendered  at  Saratoga, — the  army  which 
Schuyler  had  made  ready  and  which  Morgan  and  Arnold 
had  victoriously  handled.  Intriguers  had  sought,  while 
Washington  lay  at  Valley  Forge,  to  substitute  Gates 
for  the  commander-in-chief ;  now  he  was  to  show  how 
happy  a  circumstance  it  was  that  that  selfish  intrigue 
had  failed.  He  met  Cornwallis  at  Camden,  in  South 
Carolina,  his  own  force  three  thousand  men,  Cornwal- 
lis's  but  two  thousand,  and  was  utterly,  even  shame- 
fully, defeated  (August  16,  1780).  "We  look  on  Amer- 
ica as  at  our  feet/'  said  Horace  Walpole,  complacently, 
when  the  news  had  made  its  way  over  sea. 

And  certainly  it  seemed  as  if  that  dark  year  brought 
nothing  but  disaster  upon  the  Americans.  It  was  now 
more  evident  than  ever  that  they  had  no  government 
worthy  of  the  name.  The  Congress  had  no  more  au- 
thority now  than  it  had  had  in  1774,  when  it  was  ad- 
mitted to  be  nothing  but  a  "  Congress  of  the  Committees 
of  Correspondence  " ;  and  it  was  not  now  made  up,  as 
it  had  then  been,  of  the  first  characters  in  America, 
308 


THE   WAR    FOR   INDEPENDENCE 


the  men  of  the  greatest  force  and  initiative  in  the  patri- 
otic party.     It  could  advise,  but  it  could  not  command; 


HORATIO   GATES 


and  the  states,  making  their  own  expenditures,  which 

seemed  heavy  enough,  maintaining  their  own  militia, 

guarding   their   own   interests   in   the  war,   following 

309 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

their  own  leaders,  often  with  open  selfishness  and  in- 
difference to  the  common  cause,  paid  less  and  less  heed 
to  what  it  asked  them  to  do.  It  could  not  raise  money 
by  taxation;  it  cuuld  raise  very  little  by  loan,  having 
no  legal  power  to  make  good  its  promises  of  repayment. 
Beaumarchais  found  to  his  heavy  cost  that  it  was  next 
to  impossible  to  recover  the  private  moneys  advanced 
through  "Roderigue  Hortalez  et  Cie."  The  troops 


acknowledge  the  U  N  I  T  E  D  S/  A  T<E  S  of  A  M  E- 
RICA  f»  be  Free,  Independent  and  Sovereign  States,  and 
declare  that  the  people*  thereof  owe  no  allegiance  or  obe- 
dience to  George  the  Third,  King  of  Great-Britain  ;  and  I 
renounce,  refufe  and  abjure  any  allegiance  or  obedience  to 
him;  and  I  do  </4j-<,cur+^  that  I  will,  to  the  ut- 

moft  of  my  power,  fupport,  maintain  and  defend  the  faid 
United  States  againft  the  faid  King  George  the  Third,  his 
heirs  and  fucceflbrs,  and  his  or  their  abettors,  alManis  and 
adherents,  and  will  ferve  the  faid  United  States  in  the  office  of 
*^1tiM(r~*~  (ftsK^+Jtji  which  I  now  hold,  with 

hdeHtyyfccoirditfg  to  the  beft  of  my  /kill  and  underAanding. 


BENEDICT  ARNOLD'S  OATH  OF  ALLEGIANCE 

upon  whom  Washington  and  his  generals  depended 
were  paid  in  "continental"  paper  money,  which,  by 
1780,  had  grown  so  worthless  that  a  bushel  of  wheat 
could  scarcely  be  had  for  a  month's  pay.  Wholesale 
desertion  began.  Enlisted  men  by  the  score  quit  the 
demoralized  camps.  It  was  reckoned  that  as  many 
as  a  full  hundred  a  month  went  over  to  the  enemy,  if 
only  to  get  food  and  shelter  and  clothing.  Those 
who  remained  in  the  depleted  ranks  took  what  they 


THE    WAR  FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

needed   trom  the  farms  about  them,  and  grew  sullen 
and    mutinous.      Promises    of    money    and    supplies 


BENEDICT   ARNOLD 


proved  as  fruitless  as  promises  of  reinforcements  from 
France. 

Even  deliberate  treason  was  added.    Benedict  Arnold, 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

whom  every  soldier  in  the  continental  ranks  deemed 
a  hero  because  of  the  gallant  things  he  had  done  at 
Quebec  and  Saratoga,  and  whom  Washington  had 
specially  loved  and  trusted,  entered  into  correspondence 


JOHN  ANDR£ 


with  the  enemy,  and  plotted  to  give  West  Point  arid 
the  posts  dependent  upon  it  into  the  hands  of  the  British. 
Congress  had  been  deeply  unjust  to  him,  promoting 
his  juniors  and  inferiors  and  passing  him  over ;  a  thou- 
sand slights  had  cut  him;  a  thousand  subtle  forces  of 
discouragement  and  of  social  temptation  had  been  at 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 


work  upon  him,  and  he  had  yielded,— to  pique,  to  bitter 
disappointment,  to  the  disorders  of  a  mind  unstable, 
irritable,  without  nobility.  His  treason  was  discovered 
in  time  to  be  foiled,  but  the  heart-breaking  fact  of  it 
cut  Washington  to  the  quick, 
like  a  last  and  wellnigh  fatal 
stroke  of  bitter  dismay.  Who 
could  be  trusted  now?  and 
where  was  strength  to  be  got 
wherewith  to  carry  the  lan- 
guishing work  to  a  wortrry 
finish? 

It  was  the  worst  of  all  the 
bad  signs  of  the  times  that  no 
government  could  be  agreed 
upon  that  would  give  the 
young  states  a  real  union, 
or  assure  them  of  ha.rrr.ony 

and  co-operation  in  the  exercise  of  the  independence 
for  which  they  were  struggling.  Definitive  articles  of 
confederation  had  been  suggested  as  of  course  at  the 
time  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  adopted; 
and  the  next  year  (November  15,  1777)  the  Congress 
had  adopted  the  plan  which  Mr.  Dickinson  had  drawn 
up  and  which  its  committee  had  reported  July  12,  1776. 
But  the  states  did  not  all  accept  it,  and  without  unani- 
mous adoption  it  could  not  go  into  operation.  All  ex- 
cept Delaware  and  Maryland  accepted  it  before  the 
close  of  1778,  and  Delaware  added  her  ratification  in 
1779;  but  Maryland  still  held  out,— waiting  until  the 
great  states,  like  Virginia,  should  forego  some  part  of 
their  too  great  preponderance  and  advantage  in  the 
prospective  partnership  by  transferring  their  claims 
3*3 


MAJOR  ANDRE'S  WATCH 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 


BENEDICT  ARNOLD'S  PASS  TO  MAJOR  ANDR£ 

to  the  great  northwestern  territories  to  the  proposed 
government  of  the  confederation  ;  and  her  statesmanlike 
scruples  still  kept  the  country  without  a  government 
throughout  that  all  but  hopeless  year  1780. 

But  the  autumn  showed  a  sudden  turning  of  the 
tide.  Cornwallis  had  ventured  too  far  from  his  base 
of  operations  on  the  southern  coast.  He  had  gone 
deep  into  the  country  of  the  Carolinas,  north  of  him, 
and  was  being  beset  almost  as  Burgoyne  had  been  when 
he  sought  to  cross  the  forests  which  lay  about  the  upper 
waters  of  the  Hudson.  Gates  had  been  promptly  super- 
seded after  his  disgraceful  discomfiture  and  rout  at 
Camden,  and  the  most  capable  officers  the  long  war 
had  bred  were  now  set  to  accomplish  the  task  of  forcing 
Cornwallis  to  a  checkmate:  Nathanael  Greene,  whose 
314 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

quality  Washington  had  seen  abundantly  tested  at 
Trenton  and  Princeton,  at  the  Brandywine,  at  Ger- 
mantown,  and  at  Monmouth;  the  dashing  Henry  Lee, 
whom  nature  and  the  hard  school  of  war  had  made  a 
master  of  cavalry ;  the  veteran  and  systematic  Steuben ; 
Morgan,  who  had  won  with  Arnold  in  the  fighting 
about  Saratoga,  and  had  kept  his  name  unstained; 
and  William  Washington,  a  distant  kinsman  of  the 
commander-in-chief,  whom  English  soldiers  were  to  re- 
member with  Lee  as  a  master  of  light  horsemen.  The 
wide  forests  were  full,  too,  of  partisan  bands,  under 
leaders  whom  the  British  had  found  good  reason  to 
dread. 

The  conquest  of  the  back  country  of  the  Carolinas 
was  always  doing  and  to  be  done.  The  scattered  settle- 
ments and  lonely  plantations  were,  indeed,  full  of  men 
who  cared  little  for  the  quarrel  with  the  mother  country 
and  held  to  their  old  allegiance  as  of  course,  giving 


MAJOR  ANDRE'S  POCKET-BOOK 
315 


A   HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

to  the  King's  troops  ready  aid  and  welcome;  and  there 
were  men  there,  as  everywhere,  who  loved  pillage  and  all 
lawless  adventure,  upon  whom  the  stronger  army  could 
always  count  to  go  in  its  ranks  upon  an  errand  of  sub- 
jugation ;  but  there  were  also  men  who  took  their  spirit 
and  their  principles  from  the  new  days  that  had  come 
since  the  passage  of  the  Stamp  Act,  and,  though  they 
were  driven  from  their  homes  and  left  to  shift  for  them- 


VIRGINIA   COLONIAL   CURRENCY 


selves  for  mere  subsistence  when  the  King's  forces  were 
afield,  they  came  back  again  when  the  King's  men 
were  gone,  and  played  the  part,  albeit  without  Indian 
allies,  that  the  ousted  Tories  plaj^ed  in  the  forest  coun- 
try of  New  York.  The  English  commanders  at  Savan- 
nah and  Charleston  had  hit  at  last,  nevertheless,  upon 
effective  means  of  holding,  not  their  seaports  merely, 
but  the  country  itself.  The  forces  they  sent  into  the 
interior  were  made  up,  for  the  most  part,  of  men  recruited 
in  America,  and  were  under  the  command  of  officers 
316 


THE   WAR    FOR   INDEPENDENCE 


fitted  by  school  and  temperament  for  their  irregular 
duty  of  keeping  a  whole  country-side  in  fearful  discipline 
of  submission.  Many  a  formidable  band  of  "Whigs" 


LORD   CORNWALLIS 


took  the  field  against  them,  but  were  without  a  base 
of  supplies,  moved  among  men  who  spied  upon  them, 
and  were  no  match  in  the  long  run  for  Tarleton  and 
Ferguson,— Tarleton  with  his  reckless,  sudden  onset 
and  savage  thoroughness  of  conquest,  and  Ferguson 
317 


A   HISTORY  OF  THE   AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

with  his  subtile  gifts  at  once  of  mastery  and  of  quiet 
iudgment  that  made  him  capable  of  succeeding  either 
as  a  soldier  who  compelled  or  as  a  gentleman  who  won 


WILLIAM 
WASHINGTON 


men  to  go  his  way  and  do  his  will.     South  Carolina 
seemed  once  and  again  to  lie  almost  quiet  under  these 


men. 


But  Ferguson,  for  all  he  had  the  gifts  of  a  soldier 


BANASTRE  TARLETON 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

Mountain  (October  7,  1780).  There  he  lost  a  thousand 
men  and  his  own  life.  "A  numerous  army  appeared 
on  the  frontier/'  reported  Lord  Rawdon,  "drawn  from 


ANliU.   MORGAN 


<7 

Nolachucky  and  other  settlements  beyond  the  moun- 
tains, whose  very  names  had  been  unknown  to  us." 
The  hold  of  the  British  upon  the  inland  settlements 
was  of  a  sudden  loosened,  and  Cornwallis  had  reason 
to  know  at  once  what  a  difference  that  made  to  him. 

n.-2.  321 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE  AMERICAN   PEOPLE 

Early  in  December  came  General  Greene  to  take  the 
place  of  Gates,  and  new  difficulties  faced  the  English 


COUNT   ROCHAMBEAU 


commander.  Greene  kept  no  single  force  afield,  to 
be  met  and  checkmated,  but  sent  one  part  of  his  little 
army  towards  the  coast  to  cut  Cornwallis's  communica- 
tions, and  another  southward  against  the  inland  posts 
322 


NATHANAEL  GREENE 


VOL.       II. —  23 


^A^-^  ^r^^^i^^y  ^>^^i^ij 


FACSIMILE  OF   THE   LAST   ARTICLE   OF   CAPITULATION   AT   YORKTOWN 


THE  WAR   FOR  INDEPENDENCE 


and  settlements  where  scattered  garrisons  lay  between 
the  commander  -  in  -  chief  and  his  base  at  Charleston 
in  the  south.  With  the  first  detachment  went  Francis 
Marion,  a  man  as  formidable  in  strategy  and  sudden 


a*w    frtvrta.   tftfufuettf  /to      t&  <f<z 
^d(,e6f~~C66fas,  u*f£tf/3te& 
tf&vduv  -/Zt&vuJtS  •d&t^'  6fltefi4ojss-  s&46tn*9,  -frfr 


PAROLE  OK  CORNWALLIS 


action  as  Ferguson,  and  the  men  who  had  attached 
themselves  to  him  as  if  to  a  modern  Robin  Hood.  With 
the  second  went  Daniel  Morgan,  a  man  made  after  the 
fashion  of  the  redoubtable  frontiersmen  who  had  brought 
Ferguson  his  day  of  doom  at  King's  Mountain.  Tarle- 
325 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

ton  was  sent  after  Morgan  with  eleven  hundred  men, 
found  him  at  the  Cowpens  (January  17,   1781),   just 

Illumination. 

/COLONEL  TILGHMAN,  Aid 
V^*  de  Camp  to  his  Excellency 
General  WASHINGTON,  having 
brought  official  acounts  of  the 
SURRENDER  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis,  and  the  Garrifons  of 
York  and  Gloucefter,thofe  Citi- 
zens  who  chufe  to  ILLUMI- 
NATE on  the  GLORIOUS  Oc- 
CASION>  will  do  it  this  evening 
at  Six,    and  extinguifh  their 
lights  at  Nine  o'clock. 

Decorum  arid  harmony  are 
earneftly  recommended  to  eve- 
ry Citizen,  and  a  general  dif- 
countenance  to  the  leaft  ap- 
pearance of  riot. 

Q&ober  14,  1781. 

ORDER  PERMITTING  THE   ILLUMINATION   OF   PHILADELPHIA 

within  the  border  upon  which  King's  Mountain  lay, 

and  came  back  a  fugitive,  with  only  two  hundred  and 

seventy  men.     Greene  drew  his  forces  together  again. 

326 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 


and  at  Guilford  Court  House  Cornwallis  beat  him,  out- 
numbered though  he  was  (March  I5th).  But  to  beat 
Greene,  it  seemed,  was  of  no  more  avail  than  to  beat 
General  Washington.  The  country  was  no  safer,  the 
communications  of  the  army  were  as  seriously  threat- 
ened, the  defeated  army  was  as  steady  and  as  well  in 
hand  after  the  battle  as  before;  and  the  English  with- 
drew to  Wilmington,  on  the  coast. 

It  seemed  a  hazardous  thing  to  take  an  army  thence 
southward  again,  with 
supplies,  through  the 
forests  where  Greene 
moved ;  news  came  that 
General  Arnold  was  in 
Virginia  with  a  consid- 
erable body  of  Clinton's 
troops  from  New  York, 
to  anticipate  what  the 
southern  commander 
had  planned  to  do  for 
the  conquest  of  the  Old 
Dominion  when  the  Car- 
olinas  should  have  been 

"  pacified  "  from  end  to  end ;  and  Cornwallis  determined 
to  move  northward  instead  of  southward,  and  join 
Arnold  in  Virginia.  Greene  moved  a  little  way  in 
his  track,  and  then  turned  southward  again  against 
the  garrisons  of  the  inland  posts.  Lord  Rawdon  beat 
him  at  Hobkirk's  Hill  (April  25th)  and  held  him  off 
at  Eutaw  Springs  (September  8th) ;  but  both  times  the 
English  withdrew  to  save  their  communications;  and, 
though  the  work  was  slow  in  the  doing,  before  winter 
came  again  they  were  shut  within  the  fortifications 
327 


NELSON    IIOUSK.  CORNWALLIS'S    HEAD- 
QUARTERS, YORKTOWN 


A    HISTORY   OF   THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

of  Charleston  and  the  country-sides  were  once  more 
in  American  possession,  to  be  purged  of  loyalist  bands 
at  leisure. 

In  Virginia,  Lord  Cornwallis  moved  for  a  little  while 
freely  and  safely  enough;  but  only  for  a  little  while. 
Baron  Steuben  had  been  busy,  winter  and  spring,  rais- 
ing recruits  there  for  an  army  of  defence;  General 
Washington  hurried  the  Marquis  de  Lafayette  south- 
ward with  twelve  hundred  light  infantry  from  his 
own  command;  and  by  midsummer,  1781,  Lafayette 


EVOLUTION   OF   THE   AMERICAN   FLAG 


was  at  the  British  front  with  a  force  strong  enough 
to  make  it  prudent  that  Cornwallis  should  concentrate 
his  strength  and  once  more  make  sure  of  his  base  of 
supplies  at  the  coast.  His  watchful  opponents  out- 
manoeuvred him,  caught  his  forces  once  and  again 
in  detail,  and  made  his  outposts  unsafe.  By  the  first 
week  in  August  he  had  withdrawn  to  the  sea  and  had 
taken  post  behind  intrenchments  at  Yorktown,  some- 
thing more  than  seven  thousand  strong. 

There,    upon   the  peninsula   which    he  deemed   his 

safest  coign  of  vantage,   he  was  trapped  and  taken. 

At  last  the  French  were  at  hand.     The  Comte  de  Grasse, 

with  twenty-eight  ships  of  the  line,  six  frigates,  and 

328 


THE   WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE 

twenty  thousand  men,  was  in  the  West  Indies.  Wash- 
ington had  begged  him  to  come  at  once  either  to  New 
York  or  to  the  Chesapeake.  In  August  he  sent  word 
that  he  would  come  to  the  Chesapeake.  Thereupon 
Washington  once  again  moved  with  the  sudden  di- 
rectness he  had  shown  at  Trenton  and  Princeton. 
Rochambeau  was  free  now  to  lend  him  aid.  With 
four  thousand  Frenchmen  and  two  thousand  of  his 
own  continentals,  Washington  marched  all  the  long 
four  hundred  miles  straightway  to  the  York  River, 
in  Virginia.  There  he  found  Cornwallis,  as  he  had 
hoped  and  expected,  already  penned  between  Grasse's 
fleet  in  the  bay  and  Lafayette's  trenches  across  the 
peninsula.  His  six  thousand  men,  added  to  Lafayette's 
five  thousand  and  the  three  thousand  put  ashore  from 
the  fleet,  made  short  work  enough  of  the  siege,  drawn 
closer  and  closer  about  the  British;  and  by  the 
1 9th  of  October  (1781)  they  accepted  the  inevitable 
and  surrendered.  The  gallant  Cornwallis  himself  could 
not  withhold  an  expression  of  his  admiration  for  the 
quick,  consummate  execution  of  the  plans  which  had 
undone  him,  and  avowed  it  with  manly  frankness  to 
Washington.  "But,  after  all,"  he  cried,  "your  Ex- 
cellency's achievements  in  New  Jersey  were  such  that 
nothing  could  surpass  them."  He  liked  the  mastery 
by  which  he  had  been  outplayed  and  taken. 

Here  our  general  authorities  are  the  same  as  for  the  period  covered 
by  the  last  chapter.  But  to  these  we  now  add  Edward  J.  Lowell's 
The  United  States  of  America,  1773-1782,  in  the  seventh  volume  of 
Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America ;  John  Jay's 
Peace  Negotiations,  1782-1783,  in  the  same  volume  of  Winsor; 
G.  W.  Greene's  Historical  View  of  the  American  Revolution  ;  the 
second  volume  of  W.  B.  Weeden's  Economic  and  Social  History 
of  New  England  ;  P.  0.  Hutchinson's  Life  and  Letters  of  Thomas 

329 


A   HISTORY   OF  THE   AMERICAN    PEOPLE 

Hutchinson  ;  Moses  Coit  Tyler's  Literary  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Revolution ;  Lorenzo  Sabine's  Biographical  Sketches  of  Ad- 
herents to  the  British  Crown  ;  George  E.  Ellis' s  The  Loyalists  and 
their  Fortunes,  in  the  seventh  volume  of  Winsor ;  Edward  E.  Hale's 
Franklin  in  France ;  George  Ticknor  Curtis' s  Constitutional 
History  of  the  United  States  ;  and  William  H.  Trescot's  Diplomacy 
of  the  American  Revolution.  Abundant  references  to  authorities 
on  the  several  campaigns  of  the  revolutionary  war  may  be  found 
in  Albert  B.  Hart  and  Edward  Channing's  Guide  to  American 
History,  an  invaluable  manual. 

The  sources  for  the  period  may  be  found  in  the  contemporary 
pamphlets,  speeches,  and  letters  published  at  the  time  and  since, 
among  which  may  be  mentioned,  as  of  unusual  individuality, 
Thomas  Paine's  celebrated  pamphlet  entitled  Common  Sense,  the 
writings  of  Joseph  Galloway,  some  of  which  are  reproduced  in 
Stedman  and  Hutchinson's  Library  of  American  Literature,  and 
St.  John  de  Crevecoeur's  Letters  from  an  American  Farmer.  Here 
again  we  rely,  too,  on  the  Journals  of  Congress  and  the  Secret 
Journals  of  Congress ;  the  Debates  of  Parliament ;  Peter  Force's 
American  Archives  ;  Hezekiah  Niles's  Principles  and  Acts  of  the 
Revolution  in  America;  The  Annual  Register;  Jared  Sparks's 
Correspondence  of  the  American  Revolution  and  Diplomatic  Cor- 
respondence of  the  American  Revolution ;  Francis  Wharton's  The 
Revolutionary  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the  United  States  ; 
Thomas  Anburey's  Travels  through  the  Interior  Parts  of  Amer- 
ica (1776-1781);  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux's  Travels  in  North 
America  in  the  Years  1780.  1781,  and  1782;  and  the  Memoirs  and 
Collections  of  the  Historical  Societies  of  the  several  original  states. 


APPENDIX 

ARTICLES  OF   CONFEDERATION 

OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES 

Betweene  the  plantations  vnder  the  Gouernment  of  the 
Massachusetts,  the  Plantacons  vnder  the  Gouernment 
of  New  Plymouth,  the  Plantacons  vnder  the  Gouern- 
ment of  Connectacutt,  and  the  Gouernment  of  New 
Haven  with  the  Plantacons  in  combinacon  therewith 

WHEREAS  wee  all  came  into  these  parts  of  America 
with  one  and  the  same  end  and  ayme,  namely,  to  ad- 
vaunce  the  kingdome  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to 
enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  Gospell  in  puritie  with  peace.  And 
whereas  in  our  settleinge  (by  a  wise  Providence  of  God) 
we  are  further  dispersed  vpon  the  Sea  Coasts  and  Riuers 
then  was  at  first  intended,  so  that  we  cannot  according 
to  our  desire,  with  convenience  communicate  in  one  Gouern- 
ment and  Jurisdiccon.  And  whereas  we  live  encompassed 
with  people  of  seuerall  Nations  and  strang  languages  which 
heareafter  may  proue  injurious  to  vs  or  our  posteritie.  And 
forasmuch  as  the  Natives  have  formerly  committed  sondry 
insolences  and  outrages  vpon  seueral  Plantacons  of  the 
English  and  have  of  late  combined  themselues  against 
vs.  And  seing  by  reason  of  those  sad  Distraccons  in  Eng- 
land, which  they  have  heard  of,  and  by  which  they  know 
331 


APPENDIX 

we  are  hindred  from  that  humble  way  of  seekinge  advise 
or  reapeing  those  comfortable  fruits  of  protection  which 
at  other  tymes  we  might  well  expecte.  Wee  therefore  doe 
conceiue  it  our  bounden  Dutye  without  delay  to  enter  into 
a  present  consotiation  amongst  our  selues  for  mutual  help 
and  strength  in  all  our  future  concernements :  That  as 
in  Nation  and  Religion,  so  in  other  Respects  we  bee  and 
continue  one  according  to  the  tenor  and  true  meaninge 
of  the  ensuing  Articles:  Wherefore  it  is  fully  agreed  and 
concluded  by  and  betweene  the  parties  or  Jurisdiccons 
aboue  named,  and  they  joyntly  and  seuerally  doe  by  these 
presents  agreed  and  concluded  that  they  all  bee,  and  hence- 
forth bee  called  by  the  Name  of  the  United  Colonies  of  New- 
England. 

II.  The  said  United  Colonies,  for  themselues  and  their 
posterities,   do   joyntly   and   seuerally,   hereby   enter  into 
a  firme  and  perpetuall  league  of  friendship  and  amytie, 
for  offence  and  defence,  mutuall  advise  and  succour,  vpon 
all  just  ocgations,  both  for  preserueing  and  propagateing 
the  truth  and  liberties  of  the  Gospel,  and  for  their  owne 
mutuall  safety  and  wellfare. 

III.  It  is  futher  agreed  That  the  Plantacons  which  at 
present  are  or  hereafter  shalbe  settled  within  the  limmetts 
of  the  Massachusetts,  shalbe  forever  vnder  the  Massachu- 
setts, and  shall  have  peculiar  Jurisdiccon  among  themselues 
in  all  cases  as  an  entire  Body,  and  that  Plymouth,  Con- 
necktacutt,  and  New  Haven  shall  eich  of  them  haue  like 
peculier  Jurisdiccon  and  Gouernment  within  their  limmetts 
and  in  referrence  to  the  Plantacons  which  already  are  settled 
or  shall  hereafter  be  erected  or  shall  settle  within  their 
limmetts  respectiuely ;  prouided  that  no  other  Jurisdiccon 
shall  hereafter  be  taken  in  as  a  distinct  head  or  member 
of  this  Confederacon,  nor  shall  any  other  Plantacon  or 
Jurisdiccon  in  present  being  and  not  already  in  combynacon 
or  vnder  the  Jurisdiccon  of  any  of  these  Confederats  be 

332 


APPENDIX 

received  by  any  of  them,  nor  shall  any  two  of  the  Confed- 
erats  joyne  in  one  Jurisdiccon  without  consent  of  the  rest, 
which  consent  to  be  interpreted  as  is  expressed  in  the 
sixth  Article  ensuinge. 

IV.  It  is  by  these  Confederats  agreed  that  the  charge 
of  all  just  warrs,  whether  offensiue  or  defensiue,  upon  what 
part  or  member  of  this  Confederaccon  soever  they  fall,  shall 
both  in  men  and  provisions,  and  all  other  Disbursements, 
be  borne  by  all  the  parts  of  this  Confederacon,  in  different 
proporcons  according  to  their  different  abilitie,  in  manner 
following,  namely,  that  the  Commissioners  for  eich  Juris- 
diccon from  tyme  to  tyme,  as  there  shalbe  occation,  bring 
a  true  account  and  number  of  all  the  males  in  every  Plan- 
tacon,  or  any  way  belonging  to,  or  under  their  seuerall 
Jurisdiccons,  of  what  quality  or  condicion  soeuer  they  bee, 
from  sixteene  yeares  old  to  threescore,  being  Inhabitants 
there.     And  That  according  to  the  different  numbers  which 
from  tyme  to  tyme  shalbe  found  in  eich  Jurisdiccon,  upon 
a  true  and  just  account,  the  service  of  men  and  all  charges 
of  the  warr  be  borne  by  the  Poll :  Eich  Jurisdiccon,  or  Plan- 
tacon,  being  left  to  their  owne  just  course  and  custome  of 
rating  themselues  and  people  according  to  their  different 
estates,   with  due  respects  to  their  qualites  and  exemp- 
tions among  themselues,   though  the  Confederacon  take 
no  notice  of  any  such  priviledg:     And  that  according  to 
their  differrent  charge  of  eich  Jurisdiccon  and  Plantacon, 
the  whole  advantage  of  the  warr  (if  it  please  God  to  bless 
their  Endeavours)  whether  it  be  in  lands,  goods  or  per- 
sons, shall  be  proportionably  deuided  among  the  said  Con- 
federats. 

V.  It  is  further  agreed  That  if  any  of  these  Jurisdic- 
cons, or  any  Plantacons  vnder  it,  or  in  any  combynacon 
with  them  be  envaded  by  any  enemie  whomsoeuer,  vpon 
notice  and  request  of  any  three  majestrats  of  that  Juris- 
diccon so  invaded,  the  rest  of  the  Confederates,  without 

333 


APPENDIX 

any  further  meeting  or  expostulacon,  shall  forthwith  send 
ayde  to  the  Confederate  in  danger,  but  in  different  propor- 
cons;  namely,  the  Massachusetts  an  hundred  men  suffi- 
ciently armed  and  provided  for  such  a  service  and  jorney, 
and  eich  of  the  rest  fourty-fiue  so  armed  and  provided,  or 
any  lesse  number,  if  lesse  be  required,  according  to  this 
proporcon.  But  if  such  Confederate  in  danger  may  be 
supplyed  by  their  next  Confederate,  not  exceeding  the 
number  hereby  agreed,  they  may  craue  help  there,  and 
seeke  no  further  for  the  present.  The  charge  to  be  borne 
as  in  this  Article  is  exprest:  And,  at  the  returne,  to  be 
victualled  and  supplyed  with  poder  and  shott  for  their 
journey  (if  there  be  neede)  by  that  Jurisdiccon  which  em- 
ployed or  sent  for  them :  But  none  of  the  Jurisdiccons  to 
exceed  these  numbers  till  by  a  meeting  of  the  Commissioners 
for  this  Confederacon  a  greater  ayd  appeare  necessary. 
And  this  proporcon  to  continue,  till  upon  knowledge  of 
greater  numbers  in  eich  Jurisdiccon  which  shalbe  brought 
to  the  next  mteting  some  other  proporcon  be  ordered.  But 
in  any  such  case  of  sending  men  for  present  ayd  whether 
before  or  after  such  order  or  alteracon,  it  is  agreed  that  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  for  this  Confederacon, 
the  cause  of  such  warr  or  invasion  be  duly  considered: 
And  if  it  appeare  that  the  fault  lay  in  the  parties  so  invaded, 
that  then  that  Jurisdiccon  or  Plantacon  make  just  Satisfac- 
con,  both  to  the  Invaders  whom  they  have  injured,  and 
beare  all  the  charges  of  the  warr  themselves  without  re- 
quireing  any  allowance  from  the  rest  of  the  Confederats 
towards  the  same.  And  further,  that  if  any  Jurisdiccon 
see  any  danger  of  any 'Invasion  approaching,  and  there 
be  tyme  for  a  meeting,  that  in  such  case  three  majestrats 
of  that  Jurisdiccon  may  summon  a  meeting  at  such  con- 
venyent  place  as  themselues  shall  think  meete,  to  consider 
and  provide  against  the  threatned  danger,  Provided  when 
they  are  met  they  may  remoue  to  what  place  they  please, 
334 


APPENDIX 

Onely  whilst  any  of  these  foure  Confederats  have  but  three 
majestrats  in  their  Jurisdiccon,  their  request  or  summons 
from  any  two  of  them  shalbe  accounted  of  equall  force  with 
the  three  mentoned  in  both  the  clauses  of  this  Article,  till 
there  be  an  increase  of  majestrats  there. 

VI.  It  is  also  agreed  that  for  the  mannaging  and  con- 
cluding of  all  affairs  proper  and  concerneing  the  whole 
Confederacon,  two  Commissioners  shalbe  chosen  by  and 
out  of  eich  of  these  foure  Jurisdiccons,  namely,  two  for 
the  Mattachusetts,  two  for  Plymouth,  two  for  Connec- 
tacutt  and  two  for  New  Haven;  being  all  in  Church  fel- 
lowship with  us,  which  shall  bring  full  power  from  their 
seuerall  generall  Courts  respectively  to  heare,  examine, 
weigh  and  determine  all  affaires.of  our  warr  or  peace,  leagues, 
ayds,  charges  and  numbers  of  men  for  warr,  divission  of 
spoyles  and  whatsoever  is  gotten  by  conquest,  receiueing 
of  more  Confederats  for  plantacons  into  combinacon  with 
any  of  the  Confederates,  and  all  thinges  of  like  nature 
which  are  the  proper  concomitants  or  consequence  of  such 
a  confederacon,  for  amytie,  offence  and  defence,  not  in- 
termeddleing  with  the  gouernment  of  any  of  the  Juris- 
diccons which  by  the  third  Article  is  preserued  entirely  to 
themselves.  But  if  these  eight  Commissioners,  when 
they  meete,  shall  not  all  agree,  yet  it  is  concluded  that 
any  six  of  the  eight  agreeing  shall  have  power  to  settle 
and  determine  the  business  in  question :  But  if  six  do  not 
agree,  that  then  such  proposicons  with  their  reasons,  so 
fair  as  they  have  beene  debated,  be  sent  and  referred  to 
the  foure  generall  Courts,  vizt.  the  Mattachusetts,  Plym- 
outh, Connectacutt,  and  New  Haven :  And  if  at  all  the 
said  Generall  Courts  the  businesse  so  referred  be  con- 
cluded, then  to  bee  prosecuted  by  the  Confederates  and 
all  their  members.  It  is  further  agreed  that  these  eight 
Commissioners  shall  meete  once  every  yeare,  besides  ex- 
traordinary meetings  (according  to  the  fift  Article)  to  con- 
335 


APPENDIX 

sider,  treate  and  conclude  of  all  affaires  belonging  to  this 
Confederacon,  which  meeting  shall  ever  be  the  first  Thurs- 
day in  September.  And  that  the  next  meeting  after  the 
date  of  these  presents,  which  shalbe  accounted  the  second 
meeting,  shalbe  at  Bostone  in  the  Massachusetts,  the  third 
at  Hartford,  the  fourth  at  New  Haven,  the  fift  at  Plymouth, 
the  sixt  and  seaventh  at  Bostone.  And  then  Hartford, 
New  Haven  and  Plymouth,  and  so  in  course  successiuely, 
if  in  the  meane  tyme  some  middle  place  be  not  found  out  and 
agreed  on  which  may  be  commodious  for  all  the  jurisdiccons. 

VII.  It  is  further  agreed  that  at  eich  meeting  of  these 
eight  Commissioners,  whether  ordinary  or  extraordinary, 
they,  or  six  of  them  agreeing,  as  before,  may  choose  their 
President  out  of  themselues,  whose  office  and  worke  shalbe 
to  take  care  and  direct  for  order  and  a  comely  carrying  on 
of  all  proceedings  in  the  present  meeting.     But  he  shalbe 
invested  with  no  such  power  or  respect  as  by  which  he  shall 
hinder  the  propounding  or  progresse  of  any  businesse,  or 
any  way  cast  the  Scales,  otherwise  then  in  the  precedent 
Article  is  agreed. 

VIII.  It  is  also  agreed  that  the  Commissioners  for  this 
Confederacon  hereafter  at  their  meetings,  whether  ordinary 
or  extraordinary,  as  they  may  have  commission  or  oper- 
tunitie,  do  endeavoure  to  frame  and  establish  agreements 
and  orders  in  generall  cases  of  a  civill  nature  wherein  all 
the  plantacons  are  interested  for  preserving  peace  among 
themselves,  and  preventing  as  much  as  may  bee  all  occations 
of  warr  or  difference  with  others,  as  about  the  free  and 
speedy  passage  of  Justice  in  every  Jurisdiccon,  to  all  the 
Confederats  equally  as  their  owne,  receiving  those  that 
remoue  from  one  plantacon  to  another  without  due  certefy- 
cats;  how  all  the  Jurisdiccons  may  carry  it  towards  the 
Indians,  that  they  neither  grow  insolent  nor  be  injured 
without  due  satisfaccion,  lest  warr  break  in  vpon  the  Con- 
federates through  such  miscarryage.     It  is  also  agreed  that 

336 


APPENDIX 

if  any  servant  runn  away  from  his  master  into  any  other 
of  these  confederated  Jurisdiccons,  That  in  such  Case, 
vpon  the  Certyficate  of  one  Majistrate  in  the  Jurisdiccon  out 
of  which  the  said  servant  fled,  or  upon  other  due  proofe, 
the  said  servant  shalbe  deliuered  either  to  his  Master  or  any 
other  that  pursues  and  brings  such  Certificate  or  proofe. 
And  that  vpon  the  escape  of  any  prisoner  whatsoever  or 
fugitiue  for  any  criminal  cause,  whether  breaking  prison 
or  getting  from  the  officer  or  otherwise  escaping,  upon  the 
certificate  of  two  Majistrats  of  the  Jurisdiccon  out  of  which 
the  escape  is  made  that  he  was  a  prisoner  or  such  an  of- 
fender at  the  tyme  of  the  escape.  The  Majestrates  or  some 
of  them  of  that  Jurisdiccon  wrhere  for  the  present  the  said 
prisoner  or  fugitive  abideth  shall  forthwith  graunt  such 
a  warrant  as  the  case  will  beare  for  the  apprehending  of 
any  such  person,  and  the  delivery  of  him  into  the  hands 
of  the  officer  or  other  person  that  pursues  him.  And  if 
there  be  help  required  for  the  safe  returneing  of  any  such 
offender,  then  it  shalbe  graunted  to  him  that  craves  the 
same,  he  paying  the  charges  thereof. 

IX.  And  for  that  the  justest  warrs  may  be  of  danger- 
ous consequence,  espetially  to  the  smaler  plantacons  in 
these  vnited  Colonies,  It  is  agreed  that  neither  the  Mas- 
sachusetts, Plymouth,  Connectacutt  nor  New-Haven,  nor 
any  of  the  members  of  any  of  them  shall  at  any  tyme  here- 
after begin,  undertake,  or  engage  themselues  or  this  Con- 
federacon,  or  any  part  thereof  in  any  warr  whatsoever 
(sudden  exegents  with  the  necessary  consequents  thereof 
excepted)  which  are  also  to  be  moderated  as  much  as  the 
case  will  permit)  without  the  consent  and  agreement  of 
the  forenamed  eight  Commissioners,  or  at  least  six  of  them, 
as  in  the  sixt  Article  is  provided:  And  that  no  charge 
be  required  of  any  of  the  Confederats  in  case  of  a  defen- 
siue  warr  till  the  said  Commissioners  haue  mett  and  ap- 
proued  the  justice  of  the  warr,  and  have  agreed  vpon  the 
337 


APPENDIX 

sum  of  money  to  be  levyed,  which  sum  is  then  to  be  payd 
by  the  severall  Confederates  in  proporcon  according  to 
the  fourth  Article. 

X.  That    in    extraordinary    occations    when    meetings 
are  summoned  by  three  Majistrats  of  any  Jurisdiccon,  or 
two  as  in  the  fift  Article,  If  any  of  the  Commissioners  come 
not,  due  warneing  being  given  or  sent,  It  is  agreed  that 
foure  of  the  Commissioners  shall  have  power  to  direct  a 
warr  which  cannot  be  dela3^ed  and  to  send  for  due  proporcons 
of  men  out  of  eich  Jurisdiccon,  as  well  as  six  might  doe  if 
all  mett;  but  not  less  than  six  shall  determine  the  justice 
of  the  warr  or  allow  the  demanude  of  bills  of  charges  or 
cause  any  levies  to  be  made  for  the  same. 

XI.  It  is  further  agreed  that  if  any  of  the  Confederates 
shall  hereafter  break  any  of  these  present  Articles,  or  be 
any  other  wayes  injurious  to  any  one  of  thother  Juris- 
diccons,  such  breach  of  Agreement,  or  injurie,  shalbe  duly 
considered  and  ordered  by  the  Commissioners  for  thother 
Jurisdiccons,  that  both  peace  and  this  present  Confederacon 
may  be  entirely  preserued  without  violation. 

XII.  Lastly,  this  perpetuall  Confederacon  and  the  sev- 
eral Articles  and  Agreements  thereof  being  read  and  serious- 
ly considered,  both  by  the  Generall  Court  for  the  Massachu- 
setts, and  by  the  Commissioners  for  Plymouth,  Connectacutt 
and  New  Haven,  were  fully  allowed  and  confirmed  by  three 
of  the  forenamed  Confederates,  namely,  the  Massachusetts, 
Connectacutt  and  New-Haven,  Onely  the  Commissioners 
for  Plymouth,  having  no  Commission  to  conclude,  desired 
respite  till  they  might  advise  with  their  Generall  Court, 
wherevpon  it  was  agreed  and  concluded  by  the  said  court 
of  the  Massachusetts,  and  the  Commissioners  for  the  other 
two  Confederates,   That  if  Plymouth  Consent,   then  the 
whole  treaty  as  it  stands  in  these  present  articles  is  and 
shall  continue  firme  and  stable  without  alteracon :     But 
if  Plymouth  come  not  in,  yet  the  other  three  Confederates 

.338 


APPENDIX 

doe  by  these  presents  confirme  the  whole  Confederacon 
and  all  the  Articles  thereof,  onely,  in  September  next,  when 
the  second  meeting  of  the  Commissioners  is  to  be  at  Bostone, 
new  consideracon  may  be  taken  of  the  sixt  Article,  which 
concernes  number  of  Commissioners  for  meeting  and  con- 
cluding the  affaires  of  this  Confederacon  to  the  satisfaccon 
of  the  court  of  the  Massachusetts,  and  the  Commissioners 
for  thother  two  Confederates,  but  the  rest  to  stand  vnques- 
tioned. 

In  testymony  whereof,  the  Generall  Court  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts by  their  Secretary,  and  the  Commissioners 
for  Connectacutt  and  New-Haven  haue  subscribed  these 
presente  articles,  this  xixth  of  the  third  month,  commonly 
called  May,  Anno  Domini,  1643. 

At  a  Meeting  of  the  Commissioners  for  the  Confederacon, 
held  at  Boston,  tlu  Seventh  of  September.  It  appeareing 
that  the  Generall  Court  of  New  Plymouth,  and  the  severall 
Towneships  thereof  have  read,  considered  and  approoued 
these  articles  of  Confederacon,  as  appeareth  by  Comission 
from  their  Generall  Court  beareing  Date  the  xxixth  of 
August,  1643,  to  Mr.  Edward  Winsloweand  Mr.  Will  Collyer, 
to  ratifye  and  confirme  the  same  on  their  behalf,  wee  there- 
fore, the  Comissioners  for  the  Mattachusetts,  Conecktacutt 
and  New  Haven,  doe  also  for  our  seuerall  Gouernments, 
subscribe  vnto  them. 

JOHN  WlNTHROP,  Governor  of  Massachusetts, 
THO.  DUDLEY, 

THEOPH.  EATON, 

GEO.  FENWICK, 

EDWA.  HOPKINS, 

THOMAS  GREGSON. 


VOL.        II. 2/1 


PENN'S  PLAN  OF  UNION— 1697. 

MR.    PENN'S    PLAN    FOR  A   UNION    OF   THE    COLONIES 
IN    AMERICA. 

A  BRIEFE  and  Plaine  Scheam  how  the  English  Colo- 
nies in  the  North  parts  of  America,  viz. :  Boston,  Connec- 
ticut, Road  Island,  New  York,  New  Jerseys,  Pensilvania, 
Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Carolina  may  be  made  more 
usefull  to  the  Crowne,  and  one  another's  peace  and  safty 
with  an  universall  concurrence. 

1st.  That  the  severall  Colonies  before  mentioned  do 
meet  once  a  year,  and  oftener  if  need  be,  during  the  war, 
and  at  least  once  in  two  years  in  times  of  peace,  by  their 
stated  and  appointed  Deputies,  to  debate  and  resolve  of 
such  measures  as  are  most  adviseable  for  their  better  un- 
derstanding, and  the  public  tranquility  and  safety. 

2d.  That  in  order  to  it  two  persons  well  qualified  for 
sence,  sobriety  and  substance  be  appointed  by  each  Prov- 
ince, as  their  Representatives  or  Deputies,  which  in  the 
whole  make  the  Congress  to  consist  of  twenty  persons. 

3d.  That  the  King's  Commissioner  for  that  purpose 
specially  appointed  shall  have  the  chaire  and  preside  in 
the  said  Congresse. 

4th.  That  they  shall  meet  as  near  as  conveniently  may 
be  to  the  most  centrall  Colony  for  use  of  the  Deputies. 

5th.  Since  that  may  in  all  probability,  be  New  York 
both  because  it  is  near  the  Center  of  the  Colonies  and  for 
that  it  is  a  Frontier  and  in  the  King's  nomination,  the  Govr. 
340 


APPENDIX 

of  that  Colony  may  therefore  also  be  the  King's  High 
Commissioner  during  the  Session  after  the  manner  of 
Scotland. 

6th.  That  their  business  shall  be  to  hear  and  adjust 
all  matters  of  Complaint  or  difference  between  Province 
and  Province.  As,  1st,  where  persons  quit  their  own  Prov- 
ince and  goe  to  another,  that  they  may  avoid  their  just 
debts,  tho  they  be  able  to  pay  them,  2nd,  where  offenders 
fly  Justice,  or  Justice  cannot  well  be  had  upon  such  of- 
fenders in  the  Provinces  that  entertaine  them,  3dly,  to 
prevent  or  cure  injuries  in  point  of  Commerce,  4th,  to  con- 
sider of  ways  and  means  to  support  the  union  and  safety 
of  these  Provinces  against  the  publick  enemies.  In  which 
Congresse  the  Quotas  of  men  and  charges  will  be  much 
easier,  and  more  equally  sett,  then  it  is  possible  for  any  es- 
tablishment made  here  to  do;  for  the  Provinces,  knowing 
their  own  condition  and  one  another's,  can  debate  that 
matter  with  more  freedome  and  satisfaction  and  better 
adjust  and  ballance  their  affairs  in  all  respects  for  their 
common  safty. 

7ly.  That  in  times  of  war  the  King's  High  Commis- 
sioner shall  be  generall  or  chief  Commander  of  the  sev- 
erall  Quotas  upon  service  against  a  common  enemy  as 
he  shall  be  advised,  for  the  good  and  benefit  of  the  whole. 


FRANKLIN'S  PLAN  OF  UNION— 1754. 

PLAN  of  a  proposed  Union  of  the  several  Colonies  of 
Massachusetts-Bay,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  New- York,  New-Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina  for  their 
mutual  Defence  and  Security,  and  for  the  extending  the 
British  Settlements  in  North  America. 

That  humble  application  be  made  for  an  act  of  Parlia- 
ment of  Great  Britain,  by  virtue  of  which  one  general  gov- 
ernment may  be  formed  in  America,  including  all  the  said 
Colonies,  within  and  under  which  government  each  Colony 
may  retain  its  present  constitution,  except  in  the  particulars 
wherein  a  change  may  be  directed  by  the  said  act,  as  here- 
after follows. 

PRESIDENT-GENERAL  AND  GRAND  COUNCIL. 

That  the  said  general  government  be  administered  by 
a  President-General,  to  be  appointed  and  supported  by 
the  crown;  and  a  Grand  Council  to  be  chosen  by  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people  of  the  several  Colonies  met  in 
their  respective  assemblies. 

It  was  thought  that  it  would  be  best  the  President-General  should 
be  supported  as  well  as  appointed  by  the  crown,  that  so  all  disputes 
between  him  and  the  Grand-Council  concerning  his  salary  might 
lae  prevented ;  as  such  disputes  have  been  frequently  of  mischievous 
consequence  in  particular  Colonies,  especially  in  time  of  public 
danger.  The  quitrents  of  crown  lands  in  America  might  in  a 
short  time  be  sufficient  for  this  purpose.  The  choice  of  members 
342 


APPENDIX 

for  the  Grand-Coxmcil  is  placed  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  each  government,  in  order  to  give  the  people  a  share  in  this  new 
general  government,  as  the  crown  has  its  share  by  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  President-General. 

But  it  being  proposed  by  the  gentlemen  of  the  Council  of  New 
York,  and  some  other  counsellors  among  the  commissioners,  to 
alter  the  plan  in  this  particular,  and  to  give  the  governors  and 
councils  of  the  several  Provinces  a  share  in  the  choice  of  the  Grand- 
Council,  or  at  least  a  power  of  approving  and  confirming,  or  of 
disallowing,  the  choice  made  by  the  House  of  Representatives, 
it  was  said, — "  That  the  government  or  constitution,  proposed 
to  be  formed  by  the  plan,  consists  of  two  branches:  a  President- 
General  appointed  by  the  crown,  and  a  Council  chosen  by  the  peo- 
ple, or  by  the  people's  representatives,  which  is  the  same  thing. 

"  That,  by  a  subsequent  article,  the  council  chosen  by  the  people 
can  effect  nothing  without  the  consent  of  the  President-General 
appointed  by  the  crown;  the  crown  possesses,  therefore,  full  one 
half  of  the  power  of  this  constitution. 

"  That  in  the  British  constitution,  the  crown  is  supposed  to 
possess  but  one  third,  the  Lords  having  their  share. 

"  That  the  constitution  seemed  rather  more  favorable  for  the 
crown. 

"  That  it  is  essential  to  English  liberty  that  the  subject  should 
not  be  taxed  but  by  his  own  consent,  or  the  consent  of  his  elected 
representatives. 

"  That  taxes  to  be  laid  and  levied  by  this  proposed  constitution 
will  be  proposed  and  agreed  to  by  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
if  the  plan  in  this  particular  be  preserved. 

"  But  if  the  proposed  alteration  should  take  place,  it  seemed 
as  if  matters  may  be  so  managed,  as  that  the  crown  shall  finally 
have  the  appointment,  not  only  of  the  President-General,  but  of  a 
majority  of  the  Grand-Council ;  for  seven  out  of  eleven  governors 
and  councils  are  appointed  by  the  crown. 

"And  so  the  people  in  all  the  Colonies  would  in  effect  be  taxed 
by  their  governors. 

"  It  was  therefore  apprehended,  that  such  alterations  of  the 
plan  would  give  great  dissatisfaction,  and  that  the  Colonies  could 
not  be  easy  under  such  a  power  in  governors,  and  such  an  infringe- 
ment of  what  they  take  to  be  English  liberty. 

"  Besides,  the  giving  a  share  in  the  choice  of  the  Grand  Council 
would  not  be  equal  with  respect  to  all  the  Colonies,  as  their  con- 
stitutions differ.  In  some,  both  governor  and  council  are  appointed 
by  the  crown.  In  others,  they  are  both  appointed  by  the  proprietors. 

343 


APPENDIX 

In  some,  the  people  have  a  share  in  the  choice  of  the  council ;  in 
others,  both  government  and  council  are  wholly  chosen  by  the 
people.  But  the  House  of  Representatives  is  everywhere  chosen 
by  the  people;  and,  therefore,  placing  the  right  of  choosing  the 
Grand  Council  in  the  representatives  is  equal  with  respect  to  all. 

"  That  the  Grand  Council  is  intended  to  represent  all  the  several 
Houses  of  Representatives  of  the  Colonies,  as  a  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives doth  the  several  towns  or  counties  of  a  Colony.  Could 
all  the  people  of  a  Colony  be  consulted  and  unite  in  public  meas- 
ures, a  House  of  Representatives  would  be  needless,  and  could 
all  the  Assemblies  consult  and  unite  in  general  measures,  the 
Grand  Council  would  be  unnecessary. 

"  That  a  House  of  Commons  or  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  the  Grand  Council  are  alike  in  their  nature  and  intention. 
And,  as  it  would  seem  improper  that  the  King  or  House  of  Lords 
should  have  a  power  of  disallowing  or  appointing  Members  of  the 
House  of  Commons;  so,  likewise,  that  a  governor  and  council 
appointed  by  the  crown  should  have  a  power  of  disallowing  or 
appointing  members  of  the  Grand  Council,  who,  in  this  constitution, 
are  to  be  the  representatives  of  the  people. 

"  If  the  governor  and  councils  therefore  were  to  have  a  share 
in  the  choice  of  any  that  are  to  conduct  this  general  government, 
it  should  seem  more  proper  that  they  should  choose  the  President- 
General.  But  this  being  an  office  of  great  trust  and  importance 
to  the  nation,  it  was  thought  better  to  be  filled  by  the  immediate 
appointment  of  the  crown. 

"  The  power  proposed  to  be  given  by  the  plan  to  the  Grand  Council 
is  only  a  concentration  of  the  powers  of  the  several  assemblies  in 
certain  points  for  the  general  welfare ;  as  the  power  of  the  President- 
General  is  of  the  several  governors  in  the  same  point. 

"  And  as  the  choice  therefore  of  the  Grand  Council,  by  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  people,  neither  gives  the  people  any  new  powers, 
nor  diminishes  the  power  of  the  crown,  it  was  thought  and  hoped 
the  crown  would  not  disapprove  of  it." 

Upon  the  whole,  the  commissioners  were  of  opinion,  that  the 
choice  was  most  properly  placed  in  the  representatives  of  the  people. 


ELECTION  OF  MEMBERS. 

That  within  months  after  the  passing  such  act, 

the  House  of  Representatives  that  happens  to  be  sitting 
within  that  time,  or  that  shall  be  especially  for  that  pur 
344 


APPENDIX 

pose  convened,  may  and  shall  choose  members  for  the 
Grand  Council,  in  the  following  proportion,  that  is  to  say, 

Massachusetts  Bay 7 

New  Hampshire 2 

Connecticut 5 

Rhode  Island „ 2 

New  York 4 

New  Jersey 3 

Pennsylvania 6 

Maryland 4 

Virginia 7 

North  Carolina 4 

South  Carolina 4 

48 

It  was  thought,  that  if  the  least  Colony  was  allowed  two,  and 
the  others  in  proportion,  the  number  would  be  very  great,  and 
the  expense  heavy ;  and  that  less  than  two  would  not  be  convenient, 
as,  a  single  person  being  by  any  accident  prevented  appearing 
at  the  meeting,  the  Colony  he  ought  appear  for  would  not  be  rep- 
resented. That,  as  the  choice  was  not  immediately  popular, 
they  would  be  generally  men  of  good  abilities  for  business,  and 
men  of  reputation  for  integrity,  and  that  forty-eight  such  men 
might  be  a  number  sufficient.  But,  though  it  was  thought  rea- 
sonable that  each  Colony  should  have  a  share  in  the  representative 
body  in  some  degree  according  to  the  proportion  it  contributed 
to  the  general  treasury,  yet  the  proportion  of  wealth  or  power  of 
the  Colonies  is  not  to  be  judged  by  the  proportion  here  fixed :  be- 
cause it  was  at  first  agreed,  that  the  greatest  Colony  should  not 
have  more  than  seven  members,  nor  the  least  less  than  two ;  and 
the  setting  these  proportions  between  these  two  extremes  was 
not  nicely  attended  to,  as  it  would  find  itself,  after  the  first  election, 
from  the  sum  brought  into  the  treasury  by  a  subsequent  article. 

PLACE  OF  FIRST  MEETING. 

—Who  shall  meet  for  the  first  time  at  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia in  Pennsylvania,  being  called  by  the  President- 
General  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be  after  his  appoint- 
ment. 

345 


APPENDIX 

Philadelphia  was  named  as  being  nearer  the  centre  of  the  Colonies, 
where  the  commissioners  would  be  well  and  cheaply  accommodated. 
The  high  roads,  through  the  whole  extent,  are  for  the  most  part 
very  good,  in  which  forty  or  fifty  miles  a  day  may  very  well  be, 
and  frequently  are,  travelled.  Great  part  of  the  way  may  likewise 
be  gone  by  water.  In  summer  time,  the  passages  are  frequently 
performed  in  a  week  from  Charleston  to  Philadelphia  and  New 
York,  and  from  Rhode  Island  to  New  York  through  the  Sound, 
in  two  or  three  days,  and  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia,  by  water 
and  land,  in  two  days,  by  stage  boats,  and  street  carriages  that  set 
out  every  other  day.  The  journey  from  Charleston  to  Philadelphia 
may  likewise  be  facilitated  by  boats  running  up  Chesapeake  Bay 
three  hundred  miles.  But  if  the  whole  journey  be  performed  on 
horseback,  the  most  distant  members,  viz.,  the  two  from  New  Hamp- 
shire and  from  South  Carolina,  may  probably  render  themselves 
at  Philadelphia  in  fifteen  or  twenty  days;  the  majority  maybe 
there  in  much  less  time. 

NEW  ELECTION". 

That  there  shall  be  a  new  election  of  the  members  of 
the  Grand  Council  every  three  years;  and,  on  the  death 
or  resignation  of  any  member,  his  place  should  be  sup- 
plied by  a  new  choice  at  the  next  sitting  of  the  Assembly 
of  the  Colony  he  represented. 

Some  Colonies  have  annual  assemblies,  some  continue  during 
a  governor's  pleasure ;  three  years  was  thought  a  reasonable  me- 
dium as  affording  a  new  member  time  to  improve  himself  in  the 
business,  and  to  act  after  such  improvement,  and  yet  giving  op- 
portunities, frequently  enough,  to  change  him  if  he  has  misbe- 
haved. 

PROPORTION  OF  MEMBERS  AFTER  THE  FIRST  THREE 
YEARS. 

That  after  the  first  three  years,  when  the  proportion 
of  money  arising  out  of  each  Colony  to  the  general  treas- 
ury can  be  known,  the  number  of  members  to  be  chosen 
for  each  Colony  shall,  from  time  to  time,  in  all  ensuing 
elections,  be  regulated  by  that  proportion,  yet  so  as  that 
346 


APPENDIX 

the  number  to  be  chosen  by  any  one  Province  be  not  more 
than  seven,  nor  less  than  two. 

By  a  subsequent  article,  it  is  proposed  that  the  General  Council 
shall  lay  and  levy  such  general  duties  as  to  them  may  appear  most 
equal  and  least  burdensome,  etc.  Suppose,  for  instance,  they 
lay  a  small  duty  or  excise  on  some  commodity  imported  into  or 
made  in  the  Colonies,  and  pretty  generally  and  equally  used  in 
all  of  them,  as  rum,  perhaps,  or  wine ;  the  yearly  produce  of  this 
duty  or  excise,  if  fairly  collected,  would  be  in  some  Colonies  greater, 
in  others  less,  as  the  Colonies  are  greater  or  smaller.  When  the 
collector's  accounts  are  brought  in,  the  proportions  will  appear; 
and  from  them  it  is  proposed  to  regulate  the  proportion  of  the  rep- 
resentatives to  be  chosen  at  the  next  general  election,  within  the 
limits,  however,  of  seven  and  two.  These  numbers  may  therefore 
vary  in  the  course  of  years,  as  the  Colonies  may  in  the  growth 
and  increase  of  people.  And  thus  the  quota  of  tax  from  each 
Colony  would  naturally  vary  with  its  circumstances,  thereby 
preventing  all  disputes  and  dissatisfaction  about  the  just  pro- 
portions due  from  each,  which  might  otherwise  produce  penicious 
consequences,  and  destroy  the  harmony  and  good  agreement 
that  ought  to  subsist  between  the  several  parts  of  the  Union. 

MEETINGS  OF  THE  GRAND  COUNCIL  AND  CALL. 

That  the  Grand  Council  shall  meet  once  in  every  year, 
and  oftener  if  occasion  require,  at  such  time  and  place  as 
they  shall  adjourn  to  at  the  last  preceding  meeting,  or  as 
they  shall  be  called  to  meet  at  by  the  President-General 
on  any  emergency;  he  having  first  obtained  in  writing 
the  consent  of  seven  of  the  members  to  such  call,  and  sent 
due  and  timely  notice  to  the  whole. 

It  was  thought,  in  establishing  and  governing  new  Colonies  or 
settlements,  or  regulating  Indian  trade,  Indian  treaties,  etc.,  there 
would,  every  year,  sufficient  business  arise  to  require  at  least  one 
meeting,  and  at  such  meeting  many  things  might  be  suggested 
for  the  benefit  of  all  the  Colonies.  This  annual  meeting  may 
either  be  at  a  time  and  place  certain,  to  be  fixed  by  the  President- 
General  and  Grand  Council  at  their  first  meeting ;  or  left  at  liberty, 
to  be  at  such  time  and  place  as  they  shall  adjourn  to,  or  be  called 
to  meet  at,  by  the  President-General. 
347 


APPENDIX 

In  time  of  war,  it  seems  convenient  that  the  meeting  should 
be  in  that  colony  which  is  nearest  the  seat  of  action. 

The  power  of  calling  them  on  any  emergency  seemed  necessary 
to  be  vested  in  the  President-General ;  but,  that  such  power  might 
not  be  wantonly  used  to  harass  the  members,  and  oblige  them 
to  make  frequent  long  journeys  to  little  purpose,  the  consent  of 
seven  at  least  to  such  call  was  supposed  a  convenient  guard. 

CONTINUANCE. 

That  the  Grand  Council  have  power  to  choose  their 
speaker;  and  shall  neither  be  dissolved,  prorogued,  nor  con- 
tinued sitting  longer  than  six  weeks  at  one  time,  without 
their  own  consent  or  the  special  command  of  the  crown. 

The  speaker  should  be  presented  for  approbation;  it -being  con- 
venient, to  prevent  misunderstandings  and  disgusts,  that  the 
mouth  of  the  Council  should  be  a  person  agreeable,  if  possible, 
to  the  Council  and  President-General. 

Governors  have  sometimes  wantonly  exercised  the  power  of 
proroguing  or  continuing  the  sessions  of  assemblies,  merely  to 
harass  the  members  and  compel  a  compliance;  and  sometimes 
dissolve  them  on  slight  disgusts.  This  it  was  feared  might 
be  done  by  the  President-General,  if  not  provided  against;  and 
the  inconvenience  and  hardship  would  be  greater  in  the  general 
government  than  in  particular  Colonies,  in  proportion  to  the  dis- 
tance the  members  must  be  from  home  during  sittings,  and  the 
long  journeys  some  of  them  must  necessarily  take. 

MEMBERS'  ALLOWANCE. 

That  the  members  of  the  Grand  Council  shall  be  allowed 
for  their  service  ten  shillings  per  diem,  during  their  session 
and  journey  to  and  from  the  place  of  meeting;  twenty  miles 
to  be  reckoned  a  day's  journey. 

It  was  thought  proper  to  allow  some  wages,  lest  the  expense 
might  deter  some  suitable  persons  from  the  service;  and  not  to 
allow  too  great  wages,  lest  unsuitable  persons  should  be  tempted 
to  cabal  for  the  employment,  for  the  sake  of  gain.  Twenty  miles 
were  set  down  as  a  day's  journey,  to  allow  for  accidental  hindrances 
on  the  road,  and  the  greater  expenses  of  travelling  than  residing 
at  the  place  of  meeting. 

348 


APPENDIX 
ASSENT    OF    PRESIDENT-GENERAL    AND    HIS    DUTY. 

That  the  assent  of  the  President-General  be  requisite 
to  all  acts  of  the  Grand  Council,  and  that  it  be  his  office 
and  duty  to  cause  them  to  be  carried  into  execution. 

The  assent  of  the  President-General  to  all  acts  of  the  Grand 
Council  was  made  necessary  in  order  to  give  the  crown  its  due 
share  of  influence  in  this  government,  and  connect  it  with  Jhat  of 
Great  Britain.  The  President-General,  besides  one  half  of  the 
legislative  power,  hath  in  his  hands  the  whole  executive  power. 

POWER  OF  PRESIDENT-GENERAL  AND  GRAND  COUN- 
CIL, TREATIES  OF  PEACE  AND  WAR. 

That  the  President-General,  with  the  advice  of  the  Grand 
Council,  hold  or  direct  all  Indian  treaties,  in  which  the 
general  interest  of  the  Colonies  may  be  concerned,  and 
make  peace  or  declare  war  with  Indian  nations. 

The  power  of  making  peace  or  war  with  Indian  nations  is  at  pres- 
ent supposed  to  be  in  every  Colony,  and  is  expressly  granted  to 
some  by  charter,  so  that  no  new  power  is  hereby  intended  to  be 
granted  to  the  Colonies.  But  as,  in  consequence  of  this  power, 
one  Colony  might  make  peace  with  a  nation  that  another  was  justly 
engaged  in  war  with ;  or  make  war  on  .slight  occasion  without 
the  concurrence  or  approbation  of  neighboring  Colonies,  greatly 
endangered  by  it ;  or  make  particular  treaties  of  neutrality  in  case  of 
a  general  war,  to  their  own  private  advantage  in  trade,  by  supply- 
ing the  common  enemy,  of  all  which  there  have  been  instances, 
it  was  thought  better  to  have  all  treaties  of  a  general  nature  under 
a  general  direction,  that  so  the  good  of  the  whole  may  be  consulted 
and  provided  for. 

INDIAN  TRADE. 

That  they  make  such  laws  as  they  judge  necessary  for 
regulating  all  Indian  trade. 

Many  quarrels  and  wars  have  arisen  between  the  colonies  and 
Indian  nations,  through  the  bad  conduct  of  traders,  who  cheat 
the  Indians  after  making  them  drunk,  etc.,  to  the  great  expense 
of  the  colonies,  both  in  blood  and  treasure.  Particular  colonies 
are  so  interested  in  the  trade,  as  not  to  be  willing  to  admit  such 

349 


APPENDIX 

a  regulation  as  might  be  best  for  the  whole ;  and  therefore  it  was 
thought  best  under  a  general  direction. 

INDIAN  PURCHASES. 

That  they  make  all  purchases  from  Indians,  for  the 
crown,  of  lands  not  now  within  the  bounds  of  particular 
colonies,  or  that  shall  not  be  within  their  bounds  when 
some  of  them  are  reduced  to  more  convenient  dimensions. 

Purchases  from  the  Indians,  made  by  private  persons,  have 
been  attended  with  many  inconveniences.  They  have  frequently 
interfered  and  occasioned  uncertainty  of  titles,  many  disputes 
and  expensive  lawsuits,  and  hindered  the  settlement  of  the  land 
so  disputed.  Then  the  Indians  have  been  cheated  by  such  private 
purchases,  and  discontent  and  wars  have  been  the  consequence. 
These  would  be  prevented  by  public  fair  purchases. 

Several  of  the  Colony  charters  in  America  extend  their  bounds 
to  the  South  Sea,  which  may  perhaps  be  three  or  four  thousand 
miles  in  length  to  one  or  two  thundred  miles  in  breadth.  It  is 
supposed  they  must  in  time  be  reduced  to  dimensions  more  con- 
venient for  the  common  purposes  of  government. 

Very  little  of  the  land  in  these  grants  is  yet  purchased  of  the 
Indians. 

It  is  much  cheaper  to  purchase  of  them,  than  to  take  and  maintain 
the  possession  by  force ;  for  they  are  generally  very  reasonable 
in  their  demands  for  land ;  and  the  expense  of  guarding  a  large 
frontier  against  their  incursions  is  vastly  great ;  because  all  must 
be  guarded,  and  always  guarded,  as  we  know  not  where  or  when 
to  expect  them. 

NEW  SETTLEMENTS. 

That  they  make  new  settlements  on  such  purchases  by 
granting  lands  in  the  King's  name,  reserving  a  quit-rent 
to  the  crown  for  the  use  of  the  general  treasury. 

It  is  supposed  better  that  there  should  be  one  purchaser  than 
many ;  and  that  the  crown  should  be  that  purchaser,  or  the  Union 
in  the  name  of  the  crown.  By  this  means  the  bargains  may  be 
more  easily  made,  the  price  not  enhanced  by  numerous  bidders, 
future  disputes  about  private  Indian  purchases,  and  monopolies 
of  vast  tracts  to  particular  persons  (which  are  prejudicial  to  the 
settlement  and  peopling  of  the  country),  prevented ;  and,  the  land 

350 


APPENDIX 

being  again  granted  in  small  tracts  to  the  settlers,  the  quit-rents 
reserved  may  in  time  become  a  fund  for  support  of  government, 
for  defence  of  the  country,  ease  of  taxes,  etc. 

Strong  forts  on  the  Lakes,  the  Ohio,  etc.,  may,  at  the  same  time 
they  secure  our  present  frontiers,  serve  to  defend  new  colonies 
settled  under  their  protection ;  and  such  colonies  would  also  mut- 
ually defend  and  support  such  forts,  and  better  secure  the  friend- 
ship of  the  far  Indians. 

A  particular  colony  has  scarce  strength  enough  to  exert  itself 
by  new  settlements,  at  so  great  a  distance  from  the  old;  but  the 
joint  force  of  the  Union  might  suddenly  establish  a  new  colony 
or  two  in  those  parts,  or  extend  an  old  colony  to  particular  passes, 
greatly  to  the  security  of  our  present  frontiers,  increase  of  trade 
and  people,  breaking  off  the  French  communication  between  Canada 
and  Louisiana,  and  speedy  settlement  of  the  intermediate  lands. 

The  power  of  settling  new  colonies  is  therefore  thought  a  valuable 
part  of  the  plan,  and  what  cannot  so  well  be  executed  by  two  unions 
as  by  one. 

LAWS  TO  GOVERN  THEM. 

That  they  make  laws  for  regulating  and  governing  such 
new  settlements,  till  the  crown  shall  think  fit  to  form  them 
into  particular  governments. 

The  making  of  laws  suitable  for  the  new  colonies,  it  was  thought, 
would  be  properly  vested  in  the  president-general  and  grand  council ; 
under  whose  protection  they  must  at  first  necessarily  be,  and  who 
would  be  well  acquainted  with  their  circumstances,  as  having 
settled  them.  When  they  are  become  sufficiently  populous,  they 
may  by  the  crown  be  formed  into  complete  and  distinct  govern- 
ments. 

The  appointment  of  a  sub-president  by  the  crown,  to  take  place 
in  case  of  the  death  or  absence  of  the  president-general,  would 
perhaps  be  an  improvement  of  the  plan ;  and  if  all  the  governors  of 
particular  provinces  were  to  be  formed  into  a  standing  council 
of  state,  for  the  advice  and  assistance  of  the  president-general, 
it  might  be  another  considerable  improvement. 

RAISE  SOLDIERS,  AND  EQUIP  VESSELS,   ETC. 

That  they  raise  and  pay  soldiers  and  build  forts  for  the 
defence  of  any  of  the  colonies,  and  equip  vessels  of  force 
351 


APPENDIX 

to  guard  the  coasts  and  protect  the  trade  on  the  ocean, 
lakes,  or  great  rivers;  but  they  shall  not  impress  men  in 
any  colony,  without  the  consent  of  the  legislature. 

It  was  thought,  that  quotas  of  men,  to  be  raised  and  paid  by 
the  several  colonies,  and  joined  for  any  public  service,  could  not 
always  be  got  together  with  the  necessary  expedition.  For  in- 
stance, suppose  one  thousand  men  should  be  wanted  in  New  Hamp- 
shire on  any  emergency.  To  fetch  them  by  fifties  and  hundreds 
out  of  every  colony,  as  far  as  South  Carolina,  would  be  inconvenient, 
the  transportation  chargeable,  and  the  occasion  perhaps  passed 
before  they  could  be  assembled ;  and  therefore  it  would  be  best  to 
raise  them  (by  offering  bounty  money  and  pay)  near  the  place 
where  they  would  be  wanted,  to  be  discharged  again  when  the 
service  should  be  over. 

Particular  colonies  are  at  present  backward  to  build  forts  at 
their  own  expense,  which  they  say  will  be  equally  useful  to  their 
neighboring  colonies,  who  refuse  to  join,  on  a  presumption  that 
such  forts  will  be  built  and  kept  up,  though  they  contribute  nothing. 
This  unjust  conduct  weakens  the  whole;  but,  the  forts  being  for 
the  good  of  the  whole,  it  was  thought  best  they  should  be  built 
and  maintained  by  the  whole,  out  of  the  common  treasury. 

In  the  time  of  war,  small  vessels  of  force  are  sometimes  necessary 
in  the  colonies  to  scour  the  coasts  of  small  privateers.  These 
being  provided  by  the  Union  will  be  an  advantage  in  turn  to  the 
colonies  which  are  situated  on  the  sea,  and  whose  frontiers  on  the 
land-side,  being  covered  by  other  colonies,  reap  but  little  immediate 
benefit  from  the  advanced  forts. 

POWER  TO  MAKE  LAWS,  LAY  DUTIES,  ETC. 

That  for  these  purposes  they  have  power  to  make  laws 
and  lay  and  levy  such  general  duties,  imposts  or  taxes, 
as  to  them  shall  appear  most  equal  and  just  (considering 
the  ability  and  other  circumstances  of  the  inhabitants  in 
the  several  colonies),  and  such  as  may  be  collected  with 
the  least  inconvenience  to  the  people;  rather  discourag- 
ing luxury,  than  loading  industry  with  unnecessary  bur- 
dens. 

The  laws  which  the  president-general  and  grand  council  are 
352 


APPENDIX 

empowered  to  make  are  such  only  as  shall  be  necessary  for  the 
government  of  the  settlements ;  the  raising,  regulating,  and  pay- 
ing soldiers  for  the  general  service ;  the  regulating  of  Indian  trade ; 
and  laying  and  collecting  the  general  duties  and  taxes.  They 
should  also  have  a  power  to  restrain  the  exportation  of  provisions 
to  the  enemy  from  any  of  the  colonies,  on  particular  occasions,  in 
time  of  war.  But  it  is  not  intended  that  they  may  interfere  with 
the  constitution  or  government  of  the  particular  colonies,  who 
are  to  be  left  to  their  own  laws,  and  to  lay,  levy  and  apply  their 
own  taxes  as  before. 


GENERAL  TREASURER  AND  PARTICULAR  TREASURER. 

That  they  may  appoint  a  General  Treasurer,  and  Par- 
ticular Treasurer  in  government  when  necessary;  and, 
from  time  to  time,  may  order  the  sums  in  the  treasuries 
of  each  government  into  the  general  treasury,  or  draw 
on  them  for  special  payments,  as  they  find  most  conven- 
ient. 

The  treasurers  here  meant  are  only  for  the  general  funds  and 
not  for  the  particular  funds  of  each  colony,  which  remain  in  the 
hands  of  their  own  treasurers  at  their  own  disposal. 

MONEY,  HOW  TO  ISSUE. 

Yet  no  money  to  issue  but  by  joint  orders  of  the  Pres- 
ident-General and  Grand  Council,  except  where  sums  have 
been  appointed  to  particular  purposes,  and  the  President- 
General  is  previously  empowered  by  an  act  to  draw  such 

sums. 

To  prevent  misapplication  of  the  money,  or  even  application 
that  might  be  dissatisfactory  to  the  crown  or  the  people,  it  was 
thought  necessary  to  join  the  president-general  and  grand  council 
in  all  issues  of  money. 

ACCOUNTS. 

That  the  general  accounts  shall  be  yearly  settled  and 
reported  to  the  several  Assemblies. 
353 


APPENDIX 

By  communicating  the  accounts  yearly  to  each  Assembly, 
they  will  be  satisfied  of  the  prudent  and  honest  conduct  of  their 
representatives  in  the  grand  council. 

QUORUM. 

That  a  quorum  of  the  Grand  Council,  empowered  to 
act  with  the  President-General,  do  consist  of  twenty-five 
members;  among  whom  there  shall  be  one  or  more  from 
a  majority  of  the  Colonies. 

The  quorum  seems  large,  but  it  was  thought  it  would  not  be 
satisfactory  to  the  colonies  in  general,  to  have  matters  of  impor- 
tance to  the  whole  transacted  by  a  smaller  number,  or  even  by  this 
number  of  twenty-five,  unless  there  were  among  them  one  at  least 
from  a  majority  of  the  colonies,  because  otherwise,  the  whole  quorum 
being  made  up  of  members  from  three  or  four  colonies  at  one  end 
of  the  union,  something  might  be  done  that  would  not  be  equal 
with  respect  to  the  rest,  and  thence  dissatisfaction  and  discords 
might  rise  to  the  prejudice  of  the  whole. 

LAWS  TO  BE  TRANSMITTED. 

That  the  laws  made  by  them  for  the  purposes  aforesaid 
shall  not  be  repugnant,  but,  as  near  as  may  be,  agreeable 
to  the  laws  of  England,  and  shall  be  transmitted  to  the 
King  in  Council  for  approbation,  as  soon  as  may  be  after 
their  passing;  and  if  not  disapproved  within  three  years 
after  presentation,  to  remain  in  force. 

This  was  thought  necessary  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  crown, 
to  preserve  the  connection  of  the  parts  of  the  British  empire  with 
the  whole,  of  the  members  with  the  head,  and  to  induce  greater 
care  and  circumspection  in  making  of  the  laws,  that  they  be  good 
in  themselves  and  for  the  general  benefit 

DEATH  OF  THE  PRESIDENT-GENERAL. 

That,  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  President-General,  the 
Speaker  of  the  Grand  Council  for  the  time  being  shall  sue- 
354. 


APPENDIX 

ceed,  and  be  vested  with  the  same  powers  and  authorities, 
to  continue  till  the  King's  pleasure  be  known. 

It  might  be  better,  perhaps,  as  was  said  before,  if  the  crown 
appointed  a  vice-president,  to  take  place  on  the  death  or  absence 
of  the  president-general ;  for  so  we  should  be  more  sure  of  a  suitable 
person  at  the  head  of  the  colonies.  On  the  death  or  absence  of 
both,  the  speaker  to  take  place  (or  rather  the  eldest  King's  govern- 
or) till  his  Majesty's  pleasure  be  known. 

OFFICERS,  HOW  APPOINTED. 

That  all  military  commission  officers,  whether  for  land 
or  sea  service,  to  act  under  this  general  constitution,  shall 
be  nominated  by  the  President-General;  but  the  appro- 
bation of  the  Grand  Council  is  to  be  obtained,  before  they 
receive  their  commissions.  And  all  civil  officers  are  to 
be  nominated  by  the  Grand  Council,  and  to  receive  the 
President-General's  approbation  before  they  officiate. 

It  was  thought  it  might  be  very  prejudicial  to  the  service,  to 
have  officers  appointed  unknown  to  the  people  or  unacceptable, 
the  generality  of  Americans  serving  willingly  under  officers  they 
know ;  and  not  caring  to  engage  in  the  service  under  strangers,  or 
such  as  are  often  appointed  by  governors  through  favor  or  in- 
terest. The  service  here  meant,  is  not  the  stated,  settled  service 
in  standing  troops ;  but  any  sudden  and  short  service,  either  for 
defence  of  our  colonies,  or  invading  the  enemy's  country  (such 
as  the  expedition  to  Cape  Breton  in  the  last  war ;  in  which  many 
substantial  farmers  and  tradesmen  engaged  as  common  soldiers, 
under  officers  of  their  own  country,  for  whom  they  had  an  esteem 
and  affection ;  who  would  not  have  engaged  in  a  standing  army, 
or  under  officers  from  England).  It  was  therefore  thought  best 
to  give  the  Council  the  power  of  approving  the  officers,  which  the 
people  will  look  on  as  a  great  security  of  their  being  good  men. 
And  without  some  such  provision  as  this,  it  was  thought  the  ex- 
pense of  engaging  men  in  the  service  on  any  emergency  would  be 
much  greater,  and  the  number  who  could  be  induced  to  engage 
much  less ;  and  that  therefore  it  would  be  most  for  the  King's  service 
and  the  general  benefit  of  the  nation,  that  the  prerogative  should 
relax  a  little  in  this  particular  throughout  all  the  colonies  in  Amer- 

VOL.       I,.-aS 


APPENDIX 

ica ;  as  it  had  already  done  much  more  in  the  charters  of  some  par- 
ticular colonies,  viz. :     Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island. 

The  civil  officers  will  be  chiefly  treasurers  and  collectors  of  taxes ; 
and  the  suitable  persons  are  most  likely  to  be  known  by  the  council. 

VACANCIES,  HOW  SUPPLIED. 

But,  in  case  of  vacancy  by  death  or  removal  of  any  officer 
civil  or  military,  under  this  constitution,  the  Governor 
of  the  province  in  which  such  vacancy  happens,  may  ap- 
point, till  the  pleasure  of  the  President-General  and  Grand 
Council  can  be  known. 

The  vacancies  were  thought  best  supplied  by  the  governors 
in  each  province,  till  a  new  appointment  can  be  regularly  made; 
otherwise  the  service  might  suffer  before  the  meeting  of  the  presi- 
dent-general and  grand  council. 

EACH  COLONY   MAY  DEFEND  ITSELF  IN  EMERGENCY, 
ETC. 

That  the  particular  military  as  well  as  civil  establish- 
ments in  each  colony  remain  in  their  present  state,  the 
general  constitution  notwithstanding;  and  that  on  sud- 
den emergencies  any  colony  may  defend  itself,  and  lay 
the  accounts  of  expense  thence  arising  before  the  presi- 
dent-general and  general  council,  who  may  allow  and 
order  payment  of  the  same,  as  far  as  they  judge  such  ac- 
counts just  and  reasonable. 

Otherwise  the  union  of  the  whole  would  weaken  the  parts,  con- 
trary to  the  design  of  the  union.  The  accounts  are  to  be  judged 
of  by  the  president-general  and  grand  council,  and  allowed  if  found 
reasonable.  This  was  thought  necessary  to  encourage  colonies 
to  defend  themselves,  as  the  expense  would  be  light  when  borne 
by  the  whole ;  and  also  to  check  imprudent  and  lavish  expense 
in  such  defences 


ARTICLES  OF  CONFEDERATION-ijjj. 

To  all  to  whom  these  Presents  shall  come,  we  the  under- 
signed Delegates  of  the  States  affixed  to  our  Names, 
send  greeting. 

WHEREAS  the  Delegates  of  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica in  Congress  assembled  did  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  Novem- 
ber in  the  Year  of  our  Lord  One  Thousand  Seven  Hundred 
and  Seventyseven,  and  in  the  Second  Year  of  the  Inde- 
pendence of  America  agree  to  certain  articles  of  Confedera- 
tion and  perpetual  Union  between  the  States  of  Newhamp- 
shire,  Massachusetts-bay,  Rhodeisland  and  Providence 
Plantations,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsyl- 
vania, Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  -  Carolina, 
South-Carolina  and  Georgia  in  the  Words  following,  viz. 

Articles  of  Confederation  and  perpetual  Union  between 
the  States  of  Newhampshire,  Massachusetts-bay,  Rhode- 
island  and  Providence  Plantations,  Connecticut,  New- 
York,  New- Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  Maryland, 
Virginia,  North-Carolina,  South- Carolina  and  Georgia. 

ARTICLE  I.  The  stile  of  this  confederacy  shall  be  "  The 
United  States  of  America." 

ARTICLE  II.  Each  State  retains  its  sovereignty,  free- 
dom and  independence,  and  every  power,  jurisdiction  and 
right,  which  is  not  by  this  confederation  expressly  delegated 
to  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled. 

ARTICLE  III.  The  said  States  hereby  severally  enter 
357 


APPENDIX 

into  a  firm  league  of  friendship  with  each  other,  for  their 
common  defence,  the  security  of  their  liberties,  and  their 
mutual  and  general  welfare,  binding  themselves  to  assist 
each  other,  against  all  force  offered  to,  or  attacks  made 
upon  them,  or  any  of  them,  on  account  of  religion,  sov- 
ereignty, trade,  or  any  other  pretence  whatever. 

ARTICLE  IV.  The  better  to  secure  and  perpetuate  mut- 
ual friendship  and  intercourse  among  the  people  of  the 
different  States  in  this  Union,  the  free  inhabitants  of  each 
of  these  States,  paupers,  vagabonds  and  fugitives  from 
justice  excepted,  shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  im- 
munities of  free  citizens  in  the  several  States;  and  the 
people  of  each  State  shall  have  free  ingress  and  re- 
gress to  and  from  any  other  State,  and  shall  enjoy  therein 
all  the  privileges  of  trade  and  commerce,  subject  to  the 
same  duties,  impositions  and  restrictions  as  the  inhabi- 
tants thereof  respectively,  provided  that  such  restrictions 
shall  not  extend  so  far  as  to  prevent  the  removal  of  prop- 
erty imported  into  any  State,  to  any  other  State  of  which 
the  owner  is  an  inhabitant;  provided  also  that  no  imposi- 
tion, duties  or  restriction  shall  be  laid  by  any  State,  on 
the  property  of  the  United  States,  or  either  of  them. 

If  any  person  guilty  of,  or  charged  with  treason,  fel- 
ony, or  other  high  misdemeanor  in  any  State,  shall  flee 
from  justice,  and  be  found  in  any  of  the  United  States, 
he  shall  upon  demand  of  the  Governor  or  Executive  power, 
of  the  State  from  which  he  fled,  be  delivered  up  and  re- 
moved to  the  State  having  jurisdiction  of  his  offence. 

Full  faith  and  credit  shall  be  given  in  each  of  these  States 
to  the  records,  acts  and  judicial  proceedings  of  the  courts 
and  magistrates  of  every  other  State. 

ARTICLE  V.  For  the  more  convenient  management  of 

the  general  interests  of  the  United  States,  delegates  shall 

be  annually  appointed  in  such  manner  as  the  legislature 

of  each  State  shall  direct,  to  meet  in  Congress  on  the  first 

358 


APPENDIX 

Monday  in  November,  in  every  year,  with  a  power  reserved 
to  each  State,  to  recall  its  delegates,  or  any  of  them,  at  any 
time  within  the  year,  and  to  send  others  in  their  stead, 
for  the  remainder  of  the  year. 

No  State  shall  be  represented  in  Congress  by  less  than 
two,  nor  by  more  than  seven  members;  and  no  person  shall 
be  capable  of  being  a  delegate  for  more  than  three  years 
in  any  term  of  six  years;  nor  shall  any  person,  being  a 
delegate,  be  capable  of  holding  any  office  under  the  United 
States,  for  which  he,  or  another  for  his  benefit  receives  any 
salary,  fees  or  emolument  of  any  kind. 

Each  State  shall  maintain  its  own  delegates  in  a  meet- 
ing of  the  States,  and  while  they  act  as  members  of  the 
committee  of  the  States. 

In  determining  questions  in  the  United  States,  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  each  State  shall  have  one  vote. 

Freedom  of  speech  and  debate  in  Congress  shall  not  be 
impeached  or  questioned  in  any  court,  or  place  out  of  Con- 
gress, and  the  members  of  Congress  shall  be  protected  in 
their  persons  from  arrests  and  imprisonments,  during  the 
time  of  their  going  to  and  from,  and  attendance  on  Congress, 
except  for  treason,  felony,  or  breach  of  the  peace. 

ARTICLE  VT.  No  State  without  the  consent  of  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  shall  send  any  embassy  to. 
or  receive  any  embassy  from,  or  enter  into  any  conferrence, 
agreement,  alliance  or  treaty  with  any  king  prince  or  state; 
nor  shall  any  person  holding  any  office  of  profit  or  trust 
under  the  United  States,  or  any  of  them,  accept  of  any 
present,  emolument,  office  or  title  of  any  kind  whatever 
from  any  king,  prince  or  foreign  state ;  nor  shall  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  or  any  of  them,  grant  any 
title  of  nobility. 

No  two  or  more  States  shall  enter  into  any  treaty,  con- 
federation or  alliance  whatever  between  them,  without 
the  consent  of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled, 
359 


APPENDIX 

specifying  accurately  the  purposes  for  which  the  same  is 
to  be  entered  into,  and  how  long  it  shall  continue. 

No  State  shall  lay  any  imposts  or  duties,  which  may 
interfere  with  any  stipulations  in  treaties,  entered  into 
by  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  with  any 
king,  prince  or  state,  in  pursuance  of  any  treaties  already 
proposed  by  Congress,  to  the  courts  of  France  and  Spain. 

No  vessels  of  war  shall  be  kept  up  in  time  of  peace  by 
any  State,  except  such  number  only,  as  shall  be  deemed 
necessary  by  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled, 
for  the  defence  of  such  State,  or  its  trade;  nor  shall  any 
body  of  forces  be  kept  up  by  any  State,  in  time  of  peace, 
except  such  number  only,  as  in  the  judgment  of  the  United 
States,  in  Congress  assembled,  shall  be  deemed  requisite 
to  garrison  the  forts  necessary  for  the  defence  of  such  State; 
but  every  State  shall  always  keep  up  a  well  regulated  and 
disciplined  militia,  sufficiently  armed  and  accoutred,  and 
shall  provide  and  constantly  have  ready  for  use,  in  public 
stores,  a  due  number  of  field  pieces  and  tents,  and  a  proper 
quantity  of  arms,  ammunition  and  camp  equipage. 

No  State  shall  engage  in  any  war  without  the  consent 
of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled,  unless  such 
State  be  actually  invaded  by  enemies,  or  shall  have  re- 
ceived certain  advice  of  a  resolution  being  formed  by  some 
nation  of  Indians  to  invade  such  State,  and  the  danger 
is  so  imminent  as  not  to  admit  of  a  delay,  till  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled  can  be  consulted:  nor  shall 
any  State  grant  commissions  to  any  ships  or  vessels  of  war, 
nor  letters  of  marque  or  reprisal,  except  it  be  after  a  declara- 
tion of  war  by  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled, 
and  then  only  against  the  kingdom  or  state  and  the  subjects 
thereof,  against  which  war  has  been  so  declared,  and  under 
such  regulations  as  shall  be  established  by  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  unless  such  State  be  infested 
by  pirates,  in  which  case  vessels  of  war  may  be  fitted  out  foi 
360 


APPENDIX 

that  occasion,  and  kept  so  long  as  the  danger  shall  con- 
tinue, or  until  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled 
shall  determine  otherwise. 

ARTICLE  VII.  When  land-forces  are  raised  by  any 
State  for  the  common  defence,  all  officers  of  or  under  the 
rank  of  colonel,  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Legislature  of 
each  State  respectively  by  whom  such  forces  shall  be  raised, 
or  in  such  manner  as  such  State  shall  direct,  and  all  vacan- 
cies shall  be  filled  up  by  the  State  which  first  made  the 
appointment. 

ARTICLE  VIII.  All  charges  of  war,  and  all  other  ex- 
penses that  shall  be  incurred  for  the  common  defence  or 
general  welfare,  and  allowed  by  the  United  States  in  Con- 
gress assembled,  shall  be  defrayed  out  of  a  common  treas- 
ury, which  shall  be  supplied  by  the  several  States,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  value  of  all  land  within  each  State,  granted 
to  or  surveyed  for  any  person,  as  such  land  and  the  build- 
ings and  improvements  thereon  shall  be  estimated  ac- 
cording to  such  mode  as  the  United  States  in  Congress 
assembled,  shall  from  time  to  time  direct  and  appoint. 

The  taxes  for  paying  that  proportion  shall  be  laid  and 
levied  by  the  authority  and  direction  of  the  Legislatures 
of  the  several  States  within  the  time  agreed  upon  by  the 
United  States  in  Congress  assembled. 

ARTICLE  IX.  The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled, 
shall  have  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  and  power  of  de- 
termining on  peace  and  war,  except  in  the  cases  mentioned 
in  the  sixth  article — of  sending  and  receiving  ambassadors 
— entering  into  treaties  and  alliances,  provided  that  no 
treaty  of  commerce  shall  be  made  whereby  the  legislative 
power  of  the  respective  States  shall  be  restrained  from  im- 
posing such  imposts  and  duties  on  foreigners,  as  their 
own  people  are  subjected  to,  or  from  prohibiting  the  ex- 
portation or  importation  of  any  species  of  goods  or  com- 
modities whatsoever — of  establishing  rules  for  deciding 


APPENDIX 

in  all  cases,  what  captures  on  land  or  water  shall  be  legal, 
and  in  what  manner  prizes  taken  by  land  or  navai  forces 
in  the  service  of  the  United  States  shall  be  divided  or  ap- 
propriated— of  granting  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal 
in  times  of  peace — appointing  courts  for  the  trial  of  piracies 
and  felonies  committed  on  the  high  seas  and  establishing 
courts  for  receiving  and  determining  finally  appeals  in  all 
cases  of  captures,  provided  that  no  member  of  Congress 
shall  be  appointed  a  judge  of  any  of  the  said  courts. 

The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  also  be 
the  last  resort  on  appeal  in  all  disputes  and  differences 
now  subsisting  or  that  hereafter  may  arise  between  two 
or  more  States  concerning  boundary,  jurisdiction  or  any 
other  cause  whatever;  which  authority  shall  always  be 
exercised  in  the  manner  following.  Whenever  the  legis- 
lative or  executive  authority  or  lawful  agent  of  any  State 
in  controversy  with  another  shall  present  a  petition  to 
Congress,  stating  the  matter  in  question  and  praying  for 
a  hearing,  notice  thereof  shall  be  given  by  order  of  Congress 
to  the  legislative  or  executive  authority  of  the  other  State 
in  controversy,  and  a  day  assigned  for  the  appearance  of 
the  parties  by  their  lawful  agents,  who  shall  then  be  directed 
to  appoint  by  joint  consent,  commissioners  or  judges  to 
constitute  a  court  for  hearing  and  determining  the  matter 
in  question :  but  if  they  cannot  agree,  Congress  shall  name 
three  persons  out  of  each  of  the  United  States,  and  from  the 
list  of  such  persons  each  party  shall  alternately  strike  out 
one,  the  petitioners  beginning,  until  the  number  shall  be 
reduced  to  thirteen ;  and  from  that  number  not  less  than 
seven,  nor  more  than  nine  names  as  Congress  shall  direct, 
shall  in  the  presence  of  Congress  be  drawn  out  by  lot,  and 
the  persons  whose  names  shall  be  so  drawn  or  any  five 
of  them,  shall  be  commissioners  or  judges,  to  hear  and 
finally  determine  the  controversy,  so  always  as  a  major 
part  of  the  judges  who  shall  hear  the  cause  shall  agree 
362 


APPENDIX 

in  the  determination :  and  if  either  party  shall  neglect  to 
attend  at  the  day  appointed,  without  showing  reasons, 
which  Congress  shall  judge  sufficient,  or  being  present  shall 
refuse  to  strike,  the  Congress  shall  proceed  to  nominate 
three  persons  out  of  each  State,  and  the  Secretary  of  Con- 
gress shall  strike  in  behalf  of  such  party  absent  or  refusing; 
and  the  judgment  and  sentence  of  the  court  to  be  appointed, 
in  the  manner  before  prescribed,  shall  be  final  and  con- 
clusive; and  if  any  of  the  parties  shall  refuse  to  submit 
to  the  authority  of  such  court,  or  to  appear  or  defend  their 
claim  or  cause,  the  court  shall  nevertheless  proceed  to  pro- 
nounce sentence,  or  judgment,  which  shall  in  like  manner 
be  final  and  decisive,  the  judgment  or  sentence  and  other 
proceedings  being  in  either  case  transmitted  to  Congress, 
and  lodged  among  the  acts  of  Congress  for  the  security 
of  the  parties  concerned :  provided  that  every  commissioner, 
before  he  sits  in  judgment,  shall  take  an  oath  to  be  adminis- 
tered by  one  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  or  superior  court 
of  the  State  where  the  cause  shall  be  tried,  "  well  and  truly 
to  hear  and  determine  the  matter  in  question,  according 
to  the  best  of  his  judgment,  without  favour,  affection  or 
hope  of  reward:"  provided  also  that  no  State  shall  be  de- 
prived of  territory  for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States. 

All  controversies  concerning  the  private  right  of  soil 
claimed  under  different  grants  of  two  or  more  States,  whose 
jurisdiction  as  they  may  respect  such  lands,  and  the  States 
which  passed  such  grants  are  adjusted,  the  said  grants 
or  either  of  them  being  at  the  same  time  claimed  to  have 
originated  antecedent  to  such  settlement  of  jurisdiction, 
shall  on  the  petition  of  either  party  to  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  be  finally  determined  as  near  as  may  be 
in  the  same  manner  as  is  before  prescribed  for  deciding  dis- 
putes respecting  territorial  jurisdiction  between  different 
States. 

The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  also 
363 


APPENDIX 

have  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  and  power  of  regulat- 
ing the  alloy  and  value  of  coin  struck  by  their  own  au- 
thority, or  by  that  of  the  respective  States. — fixing  the 
standard  of  weights  and  measures  throughout  the  United 
States — regulating  the  trade  and  managing  all  affairs 
with  the  Indians,  not  members  of  any  of  the  States,  pro- 
vided that  the  legislative  right  of  any  State  within  its  own 
limits  be  not  infringed  or  violated — establishing  and  reg- 
ulating post-offices  from  one  State  to  another,  throughout 
all  the  United  States,  and  exacting  such  postage  on  the 
papers  passing  thro'  the  same  as  may  be  requisite  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  the  said  office — appointing  all  officers  of 
the  land  forces,  in  the  service  of  the  United  States,  except- 
ing regimental  officers — appointing  all  the  officers  of  the 
naval  forces,  and  commissioning  all  officers  whatever  in 
the  service  of  the  United  States — making  rules  for  the 
government  and  regulation  of  the  said  land  and  naval  forces, 
and  directing  their  operations. 

The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  have 
authority  to  appoint  a  committee,  to  sit  in  the  recess  of 
Congress,  to  be  denominated  "a  Committee  of  the  States," 
and  to  consist  of  one  delegate  from  each  State ;  and  to  ap- 
point such  other  committees  and  civil  officers  as  may  be 
necessary  for  managing  the  general  affairs  of  the  United 
States  under  their  direction — to  appoint  one  of  their  num- 
ber to  preside,  provided  that  no  person  be  allowed  to  serve 
in  the  office  of  president  more  than  one  year  in  any  term 
of  three  years;  to  ascertain  the  necessary  sums  of  money 
to  be  raised  for  the  service  of  the  United  States,  and  to  ap- 
propriate and  apply  the  same  for  defraying  the  public  ex- 
penses— to  borrow  money,  or  emit  bills  on  the  credit  of 
the  United  States,  transmitting  every  half  year  to  the  re- 
spective States  an  account  of  the  sums  of  money  so  bor- 
rowed or  emitted, — to  build  and  equip  a  navy — to  agree 
upon  the  number  of  land  forces,  and  to  make  requisitions 
364 


APPENDIX 

from  each  State  for  its  quota,  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  white  inhabitants  in  such  State;  which  requisition  shall 
be  binding,  and  thereupon  the  Legislature  of  each  State 
shall  appoint  the  regimental  officers,  raise  the  men  and 
cloath,  arm  and  equip  them  in  a  soldier  like  manner,  at 
the  expense  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  officers  and  men 
so  cloathed,  armed  and  equipped  shall  march  to  the  place 
appointed,  and  within  the  time  agreed  on  by  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled:  but  if  the  United  States 
in  Congress  assembled  shall,  on  consideration  of  circum- 
stances judge  proper  that  any  State  should  not  raise  men, 
or  should  raise  a  smaller  number  than  its  quota,  and  that 
any  other  State  should  raise  a  greater  number  of  men  than 
the  quota  thereof,  such  extra  number  shall  be  raised,  of- 
ficered, cloathed,  armed  and  equipped  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  quota  of  such  State,  unless  the  legislature  of  such 
State  shall  judge  that  such  extra  number  cannot  be  safely 
spared  out  of  the  same,  in  which  case  they  shall  raise,  officer, 
cloath,  arm  and  equip  as  many  of  such  extra  number  as 
they  judge  can  be  safely  spared.  And  the  officers  and 
men  so  cloathed,  armed  and  equipped,  shall  march  to  the 
place  appointed,  and  within  the  time  agreed  on  by  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled. 

The  United  States  in  Congress  assembled  shall  never 
engage  in  a  war,  nor  grant  letters  of  marque  and  reprisal 
in  time  of  peace,  nor  enter  into  any  treaties  or  alliances, 
nor  coin  money,  nor  regulate  the  value  thereof,  nor  as- 
certain the  sums  and  expenses  necessary  for  the  defence 
and  welfare  of  the  United  States,  or  any  of  them,  nor  emit 
bills,  nor  borrow  money  on  the  credit  of  the  United  States, 
nor  appropriate  money,  nor  agree  upon  the  number  of  vessels 
of  war,  to  be  built  or  purchased,  or  the  number  of  land  or 
sea  forces  to  be  raised,  nor  appoint  a  commander  in  chief 
of  the  army  or  navy,  unless  nine  States  assent  to  the 
same:  nor  shall  a  question  on  any  other  point,  except  for 
365 


APPENDIX 

adjourning  from  day  to  day  be  determined,  unless  by  the 
votes  of  a  majority  of  the  United  States  in  Congress  as- 
sembled. 

The  Congress  of  the  United  States  shall  have  power 
to  adjourn  to  any  time  within  the  year,  and  to  any  place 
within  the  United  States,  so  that  no  period  of  adjourn- 
ment be  for  a  longer  duration  than  the  space  of  six  months, 
and  shall  publish  the  journal  of  their  proceedings  monthly, 
except  such  parts  thereof  relating  to  treaties,  alliances 
or  military  operations,  as  in  their  judgment  require  secresy ; 
and  the  yeas  and  nays  of  the  delegates  of  each  State  on 
any  question  shall  be  entered  on  the  journal,  when  it  is 
desired  by  any  delegate;  and  the  delegates  of  a  State,  or 
any  of  them,  at  his  or  their  request  shall  be  furnished  with 
a  transcript  of  the  said  journal,  except  such  parts  as  are 
above  excepted,  to  lay  before  the  Legislatures  of  the  several 
States. 

ARTICLE  X.  The  committee  of  the  States,  or  any  nine 
of  them,  shall  be  authorized  to  execute,  in  the  recess  of 
Congress,  such  of  the  powers  of  Congress  as  the  United 
States  in  Congress  assembled,  by  the  consent  of  nine  States, 
shall  from  time  to  time  think  expedient  to  vest  them  with ; 
provided  that  no  power  be  delegated  to  the  said  committee, 
for  the  exercise  of  which,  by  the  articles  of  confederation, 
the  voice  of  nine  States  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
assembled  is  requisite. 

ARTICLE  XI.  Canada  acceding  to  this  confederation, 
and  joining  in  the  measures  of  the  United  States,  shall 
be  admitted  into,  and  entitled  to  all  the  advantages  of  this 
Union :  but  no  other  colony  shall  be  admitted  into  the  same, 
unless  such  admission  be  agreed  to  by  nine  States. 

ARTICLE  XII.  All  bills  of  credit  emitted,  monies  bor- 
rowed and  debts  contracted  by,  or  under  the  authority 
of  Congress,  before  the  assembling  of  the  United  States, 
in  pursuance  of  the  present  confederation,  shall  be  deemed 
366 


APPENDIX 

and  considered  as  a  charge  against  the  United  States,  for 
payment  and  satisfaction  whereof  the  said  United  States, 
and  the  public  faith  are  hereby  solemnly  pledged. 

ARTICLE  XIII.  Every  State  shall  abide  by  the  deter- 
minations of  the  United  States  in  Congress  assembled, 
on  all  questions  which  by  this  confederation  are  submitted 
to  them.  And  the  articles  of  this  confederation  shall  be 
inviolably  observed  by  every  State,  and  the  Union  shall 
be  perpetual;  nor  shall  any  alteration  at  any  time  here- 
after be  made  in  any  of  them;  unless  such  alteration  be 
agreed  to  in  a  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  be  after- 
wards confirmed  by  the  Legislatures  of  every  State. 

And  whereas  it  has  pleased  the  Great  Governor  of  the 
world  to  incline  the  hearts  of  the  Legislatures  we  respec- 
tively represent  in  Congress,  to  approve  of,  and  to  authorize 
us  to  ratify  the  said  articles  of  confederation  and  perpetual 
union.  Know  ye  that  we  the  undersigned  delegates,  by 
virtue  of  the  power  and  authority  to  us  given  for  that  purpose, 
do  by  these  presents,  in  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  our  re- 
spective constituents,  fully  and  entirely  ratify  and  con- 
firm each  and  every  of  the  said  articles  of  confederation 
and  perpetual  union,  and  all  and  singular  the  matters  and 
things  therein  contained :  and  we  do  further  solemnly  plight 
and  engage  the  faith  of  our  respective  constituents,  that 
they  shall  abide  by  the  determinations  of  the  United  States 
in  Congress  assembled,  on  all  questions,  which  by  the  said 
confederation  are  submitted  to  them.  And  that  the  articles 
thereof  shall  be  inviolably  observed  by  the  States  we  re[s]pec- 
tively  represent,  and  that  the  Union  shall  be  perpetual. 

In  witness  whereof  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands  in  Con- 
gress. Done  at  Philadelphia  in  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania the  ninth  day  of  July  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-eight,  and  in  the 
third  year  of  the  independence  of  America. 
367 


APPENDIX 

On  the  part  &  behalf  of  the  State  of  New  Hampshire. 
JOSIAH  BARTLETT,  JOHN  WENT  WORTH,  Junr., 

August  8th,  1778. 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts  Bay 
JOHN  HANCOCK,  FRANCIS  DANA, 

SAMUEL  ADAMS,  JAMES  LOVELL, 

ELBRIDGE  GERRY,  SAMUEL  HOLTEN. 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  and 

Providence  Plantations. 
WILLIAM  ELLERY,  JOHN  COLLINS. 

HENRY  MARCHANT, 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Connecticut. 
ROGER  SHERMAN,  TITUS  HOSMER, 

SAMUEL  HUNTINGTON,  ANDREW  ADAMS. 

OLIVER  WOLCOTT, 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
JAS.  DUANE,  WM.  DUER, 

FRA.  LEWIS,  Gouv.  MORRIS. 

On  the  part  and  in  behalf  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey, 
Novr.  26,  1778. 

JNO.  WlTHERSPOON,  NATH.   SCUDDER. 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
ROBT.  MORRIS,  WILLIAM  CLINGAN, 

DANIEL  ROBERDEAU,  JOSEPH  REED, 

JONA.  BAYARD  SMITH,  226.  July,  1778. 

On  the  part  &  behalf  of  the  State  of  Delaware. 
THO.  M'KEAN,  NICHOLAS  VAN  DYKE. 

Feby.  12,  1779. 
JOHN  DICKINSON,  May  sth,  1779. 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Maryland. 
JOHN  HANSON,  DANIEL  CARROLL, 

March  I,  1781.  Mar.  I,  1781. 

368 


APPENDIX 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Virginia. 
RICHARD  HENRY  LEE,  JNO.  HARVIE, 

JOHN  BANISTER,  FRANCIS  LIGHTFOOT  LEE. 

THOMAS  ADAMS, 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  No.  Carolina. 
JOHN  PENN,  July  21,  1778.      JNO.  WILLIAMS. 
CORNS.  HARNETT, 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  South  Carolina 
HENRY  LAURENS,  JNO.  MATHEWS, 

WILLIAM  HENRY  DRAYTON,  RICHD.  HUTSON. 
THOS.  HEYWARD,  Junr. 

On  the  part  and  behalf  of  the  State  of  Georgia. 
JNO.  WALTON,  EDWD.  LANGWORTHY. 

24th  July,  1778. 
EDWD.  TELFAIR, 


THE   END   OF    VOL.  II 


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